A Change In Time
by mayarox95
Summary: As a magical disruption in the time continuum occurs, three children are brought back to undo the wrongs of their future and prevent it from happening. Can Hermione, Draco, Harry, and Ron race against the clock to stop something which has yet to occur?
1. The Beginnings

**A/N:** I'm back with a new story! I've been working on the idea behind this for quite some time and while I have a few minor things left to work out, I have most of it planned out already. As usual, I will be updating every Sunday unless something comes up otherwise.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters or the plot leading up to Deathly Hallows minus the epilogue. This entire plot is mine and mine alone.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

Hermione sighed as she placed her hair in a tight ponytail to move it out of her face. It was going to be an extremely long day, what with the procedure she had scheduled and then checking in on her long term patients. Thankfully for her, it was nothing life threatening, so it would be a bit easier on her.

She was in her office, looking over the files of the patients she would be dealing with, trying to figure out the best course of action for each person.

For the most part, her job was easy; simple spells to reverse which had happened due to accidents, and were very rarely that life threatening. But every now and then someone would come in due to the use of dark magic. She had faced everything from children accidently cursing themselves or others, to deathly accidents from curses that had been as a result of some of the dark wizards that were still on the run.

While the end of the war meant the end of Voldemort, there were several Death Eaters that eluded capture. In the years since then, the Auror department had done a fantastic job of bringing them in. Hermione had been offered a job at the end of the war along with Harry and Ron, who immediately agreed, eager to join in on the action. She, on the other hand, needed a break. She was tired of the running and of the action. She had done what she needed to do during the war because it was the right thing to do. She didn't regret helping Harry, and she would do it over again if she had to. But it wasn't something she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

Her friends had been supportive in her decision, despite meaning that she wouldn't be working with them every day, nor would she be able to help them on their cases. It was different, and it was scary since it meant that she would be once again out of her element. While she had long since grown up, she hated not being prepared for new situations. But healing was what she wanted to do, and she hadn't regretted it for even a moment since choosing her path.

Going into healing hadn't been a surprise to most of the people in her life. Hermione would be lying if she knew that it was what she wanted to do while she was younger, thus the reason she tried to take so many courses in her third year at school.

While she was on the run with Harry and Ron, she ended up having to use quite a few healing spells as they didn't have access to Healers or potions. When she had gone back to school after the war, she had weighed her options, and realized that Healing was what she wanted to do.

She had been a healer for nearly four years, but it was only in the recent year that she specialized. It had increased her hours and meant that she had far less time to spend with the people in her life, despite how much she cared about them, including her relationship.

It hadn't really been a surprise to either of them that it collapsed the way it did. Her relationship with Ron was a fantasy one. It was everything she wanted as a child; he was kind and caring, and she had genuinely loved him. But it hadn't been enough ultimately. They had both grown up and realized that sometimes it wasn't enough. There had been something missing in their relationship. She closed her eyes as she went back to that moment when it all had ended.

_He had come into her office during her lunch break, looking slightly nervous and a bit grim. She had looked up from the papers on her desk, as she had been sorting through it, trying to figure out the reason for one to slip into a magical induced coma as a result of a dark spell. It had been a side project she was working on for months, as she needed to submit a paper on a topic of her choosing before she could become a senior healer. _

_"Can we talk?" he asked as he sat in the chair across from her. She hadn't seen him all week, due to him being on a case out of the country and her workload._

_She nodded, "Of course. Did something bad happen? Please tell me no one was hurt," she asked, a bit panicked. He rarely visited her at work due to the fact that one of them was always busy._

_"No, nothing like that," he said softly, "I wanted to talk about us. I know it probably isn't the best time, but we're just both really busy all the time, and I wasn't sure when else we would be able to talk."_

_"I know," she spoke quietly. She had been sensing it for some time. They were off beat, no longer in sync with the other. She knew what he was going to say, and she didn't blame him when she had been considering it for quite a while herself. "We're not working are we?" she asked, trying to make it easier for him._

_"No," he agreed, "We're not. I love you, Hermione, and I always will. But I'm not in love with you, and I don't think you're in love with me either."_

_A tear slipped down her face, and he took her hand into his, "I'm going to miss this," she said softly. "I'm going to miss you. You were my first love, and I know we weren't right for each other, but I do care about you. Promise me we can still be friends? I don't think I could deal with losing you completely."_

_He got up from his seat and wrapped his arms around her tightly, "Me too, Hermione. I promise I'm not going anywhere. You're my best friend, and I still want you in my life. It probably won't be easy at first, but we'll make it work. I'm going to be here for you through everything, I promise."_

_He stayed with her for the rest of her break, and when he left, she felt an odd sense of relief. Yes, she would miss what she had with him, but it would be unfair for either of them to stay with each other when neither of them were in love with the other person. _

That had been six months ago. Thinking back on it, she had been extremely lucky that she was able to stay friends with Ron. There were a lot of different possible outcomes in which they could have hated each other and would never speak again. That wasn't to say that it hadn't been hard to maintain their friendship at first, but they had eventually overcome all the awkwardness, much to her relief.

"Healer Granger?" she heard a voice call out from the door, causing her to look up. Standing there was Mary, an intern at the hospital, "A patient just came in and is need of urgent care."

She stood up and grabbed her white jacked from the chair behind her. As she followed Mary out the door, she began to get the details on the case, "Tell me about the patient," she asked authoritatively.

"Male, 22, injured on active Auror Duty. His partner says he was hit by some sort of spell, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. The patient seems to be bleeding from a single source on the body but all initial attempts of sealing the wound failed. Patient also seems to have several broken bones, which have been treated, except for a bone which is puncturing a lung, meaning if it isn't healed quickly the patient could stop breathing. However the bleeding wound is definitely the priority," Mary said as she walked beside Hermione to Emergency Care.

Her pulse was raised as she heard it was an Auror. The chance of it being either Harry or Ron was extremely slim, because while the age matched, after the war there was an increase of recruits in the division. She couldn't afford to go in with a nervous headspace.

"Mary, I'm going to need you to heal the rib while I work on the wound. You should be able to use a healing charm on it, but you need to be careful, as you need to make sure that none of the bone broke off into the lung. Use a quick scan spell to check that first. Once you heal the bone, the lung is going to lose what was holding it up, and you need to immediately cast a charm over the lung to close it off, which depending on the spell that caused the puncture could vary. I would suggest a simple healing charm first, but then work your way up," Hermione instructed as she took her wand in her hand and entered the room.

Harry was on the far end of the room, and when Hermione saw him, she froze, as she knew just who was lying on the bed; someone who she hadn't seen since his trial. The patient on the bed was Draco Malfoy.

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><p>Draco woke up to see strange white walls around him. He instantly shot up, but felt a painful sensation in his chest, and yelped.<p>

"I would take it easy if I were you," a feminine voice called out. He looked to his right and saw a Healer dressed in white robes, going over a few charts, "You had quite the damage done to you today. You're lucky Harry got you in as quickly as possible.

He took a double take when she mentioned his partner's name. Not many people who were not close to Potter felt comfortable referring to him by his given name. "Granger?" he asked, unsure of whether it was her or not. He hadn't seen her since his trial three years ago, and so much had changed since that time, including her. Bloody Hell, out of all the people who could possibly treat him, it would be her.

She, along with Potter and Weasley had vouched for him at the trial, to his surprise. He understood them being there for his mother, she had lied for Potter after all. But they didn't need to for him.

Potter had claimed it was because he was there that night at the tower and he knew that Draco would have given in to Dumbledore and accepted his offer if he had a bit more time alone with the older wizard. Granger had also stated that he hadn't given them up when they were at Malfoy Manor. He was grateful for the second chance he had been given, so when Potter suggested he go into Auror training with him, he agreed. He didn't really have much to lose at that point, and it would be good for him to try and make amends for the damage he had caused, directly and indirectly.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" she asked, looking up from her papers. She had a way of sounding completely professional and looking at him as if he were nothing but a patient, despite their history. He supposed he should be grateful for that fact, but it had a way of making him feel extremely small.

"I-uh, wasn't expecting to see you here," he admitted, hearing a chuckle from his right. He looked over and saw his partner laughing.

He would be lying if he said working with Potter wasn't a bit weird, given all their history at school. But their skills complemented each other, and their supervisors had decided it would be a good idea to pair them up. It was definitely strange at work, but the two of them worked well together, and had closed a significant amount of cases.

"I was a bit surprised to see you here too," she admitted, as she came over to his bed side. She raised her wand to cast a couple of spells over him, seemingly to check his vitals.

"So am I free to go?" he asked, trying to sit up again.

She handed him a vial of a pain relieving potion when he winced again from his injuries, "I'd rather you not. Given the severity of your injuries, I prefer to keep you overnight for observation, but you should be free to go in the morning."

Draco looked over at Potter, hoping his partner would convince his friend to release him.

Harry simply raised his hands and said, "I'd help if I could. But Hermione's word is law when it comes to these things. Besides, I've seen firsthand what happens when you get on the wrong side of her wand. I'd rather get home to my wife in one piece, thank you very much."

Granger mockingly glared at him, and nudged him with her shoulder. "I'll be back here in the morning to release you, Mr. Malfoy. You might want to take the next couple of days off, or at least be careful. You were in pretty bad condition when you came in, and I would rather you not be back here dying anytime soon because you didn't listen to my instructions."

He frowned, "Fine," he conceded defeat, "But I expect you in here first thing, Granger. I'm not spending all day in this place."

Harry turned to face her, "Can you come by for dinner tonight? Ginny and I have something we want to talk to you and Ron about," he said, touching her arm gently. Draco couldn't help but feel curious, but he figured that if it as relevant, his partner would tell him in time. They weren't quite friends, but he respected Potter and got along well with him and even cared about the man to a degree.

She smiled at him as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She had grown up nicely, Draco could admit to that. She might still be slightly stuck up, but she didn't appear to hold any grudge against him, and for that he was grateful. Truth be told, he was a bit unsure of how to react to her being the person who saved his life. He and Potter had a mutual understanding and a level of respect reached after years of partnership, and he was on semi-decent terms with Weasley, although the two of them still had quite a rocky relationship. But he hadn't had a chance to make amends with Granger yet, despite his partner trying to give him a constant push in that direction.

"Of course," she said. "I finish my shift at 6, so I can be there around 6:30 or so, is that alright?"

He nodded, "Sounds perfect, see you around then."

She reached to grab the stack of charts, "Mr. Malfoy, there are nurses stationed to this area in case anything happens or you need something. You can summon them using the switch on your bed," she said, before pressing a kiss to her friend's cheek and leaving the room.

"That wasn't awkward at all," he said sarcastically, causing his partner to laugh at him.

"She's really not that hard to talk to. If anything, she's the most forgiving out of all of us. Besides, if you convinced Ron to forgive you, then she really is easy compared to that," Harry reasoned. "Are you going to be fine here? Or do you need something for me to do."

"Can you tell my mother I'm here?" he asked Potter softly, "Downplay what happened. She's going to panic, especially since she can't be here."

The conditions for his mother not going to Azkaban had been to spend seven years on house arrest. It was more than fair, given the alternative. But he still worried about leaving her alone in that large house by herself for too long.

"Of course," Harry said, giving him a nod before leaving him alone in the room to his thoughts.

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><p>Hermione arrived promptly at 6:30 at her friends' house. To say she had a weird shift was definitely an understatement. She knew Harry was partners with Malfoy and that Ron ran into him from time to time, but it was a strange experience to see Harry and Malfoy together without one of them taunting or trying to kill the other.<p>

"Hermione!" Ginny said, appearing in the hallway to greet her. She and Harry had gotten married a year and a half ago. It had been such a lovely ceremony, and the romantic in her had been wistful that someday she would be in her friend's shoes. They had been living together in Grimmauld place for some time before their marriage. Hermione had helped her friends after the war to try and make the place more cheerful, which after several days of work, was finally accomplished.

"Hi, Gin," Hermione smiled as she wrapped her arms around her friend. "How are you doing?"

"Good," her friend grinned, "Harry's just finishing up dinner and Ron's in the sitting room." Ginny lead her through the house, "Tell me about you. You've been so busy working lately and I feel like we've barely had any time to catch up. Promise me we'll do something really soon, just the two of us."

As they made their way to the sitting room, her eye caught the portrait that the four of them had taken a few months after the war. Their faces were tired from the lack of sleep and the stress of what had just occurred, but she loved that picture as it showed just how much they had overcome together.

"Hermione," Ron greeted her as they entered the room. He got up and hugged her softly. She smiled at her friend as she greeted him back.

She could honestly say that she could look at Ron now and have no more lingering feelings towards the wizard, much to her relief.

Harry entered the room just then, "Dinner will be ready soon, but in the meantime, Ginny and I wanted to tell you both something," he said, exhaling as he sat down beside his wife and wrapped his arms around her.

Ginny looked like she couldn't hold it in any longer, "We're pregnant," she squealed, causing Hermione to immediately get up and hug her friends.

"I'm so happy for you guys," she said genuinely, "How far are you?"

"Nine weeks," Harry said, "I wanted to wait the first trimester before we told you guys, but we couldn't keep it in any longer."

"Congratulations guys," Ron said, clapping Harry on the back.

"There's more," Ginny said, looking to her husband to speak.

"We want you both to be the godparents," Harry said, causing Hermione to burst into a wide smile.

"I would be honoured to accept-" she started to say, before the lights started flickering, before going off completely.

She felt a surge of power race through her body as she looked around the room scared. The earth under her started to shake and things around the room began to crash to the floor. It couldn't have been an earthquake, due to the magical power she felt flowing freely all around her. There was something very unnatural about what was occurring. Whatever it was, lasted several moments before finally coming to a halt, leaving destruction in it's wake.

"What just happened?" Ron asked, breaking the silence around the room.

Hermione looked up, and uttered a sentence she had said on a handful of occasions in the past, "I don't know."

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><p><strong>AN:** A slightly slow chapter, but it will pick up soon, I swear!


	2. The Aftermath

**Chapter 2**

Draco had been asleep when the ground beneath him began to shake. He bolted up into a sitting position, and winced from the lingering pain in his side. He had to admit the work Granger had done on his body had healed a lot of the damage that had been done to him, but even magic had its limits. While pain potions would help relieve the remaining pain, though it was never a good idea to take too much as it could be addicting.

He sighed; it wasn't really anyone's fault that he was here in the first place, other than the suspect in a series of illegal operations that they had been investigating. After a number of reports of violent deaths in Knockturn Alley, the case had come to Harry and his desk. They had looked into it and found that each victim had bought a pendent from a merchant in the sketchy alley, which according to the Aurors who looked into the deaths, was the cause. The dark magic in the pendent was promised to boost one's magical energy, however it seemed to absorb all the power from the user, and drained their life force.

When they had gone undercover, trying to find the perpetrator, he had caught on that the two of them were Aurors, and sent several hexes Draco's way. While he had blocked them, he hadn't been expecting curses from the partner that neither he nor Harry knew he had. Thankfully it hadn't been for nothing, as the two schemers were safely locked away in Azkaban awaiting their trials.

It wasn't to say that he hadn't been in worse type situations in the past. Being an Auror had a lot of risks, but the fact that he was also a Death Eater in the past didn't seem to help. There were a lot of people that believed that he belonged behind bars, especially the people he was after. In fact, the culprits were far more likely to curse him over Harry. Unfortunately for them, Draco was well versed in dueling and it was very rare that one of the hexes thrown at him made their target.

It was bloody infuriating at times. There were days where he just wanted to say 'screw it', and run off to some tropical island and live out the rest of his days with his fortune. After all, he didn't need to work. The Malfoy fortune was raking up interest on its interest, and it was clear that several generations of the family line could live happily and extravagantly without even putting a dent into the fortune.

He could hear the commotion in the hall outside his room as the lights kept flickering around him. Whatever was happening was not normal. He sat up straighter in the bed, trying to make out what was happening. He grabbed his wand from the nightstand by instinct.

The entire thing lasted for maybe five minutes or so, but despite the minimal amount of time, he could tell that the damage it would have done was devastating. Areas closer to the origination of the source would have been hit far harder.

The wizarding world had been relatively calm over the last several years; there was the occasional thing that would cause the media to go on a frenzy for a few weeks, such as a string of large scale robberies or a few murders here or there. He had no way to assess the damage from the bed he was currently confined to, and it frustrated him beyond words.

It had barely been twenty minutes since the earthquake when Granger walked back into the room. She looked frazzled and tired. She had probably been in the middle of dinner with Potter when the entire thing had gone down and she had been called back into work. She had dark circles under her eyes, and he could tell from the stressed look on her face that she probably wouldn't be getting sleep any time soon.

"How bad is it?" he asked her as she made her way over to him.

She had his charts in her hand, as she flipped through a few pages. From the grim look on her face, he could tell that it wasn't looking too good. She grabbed her wand from her robe and cast a few spells on him wordlessly, and he figured she was checking his vitals.

"I don't know a lot about what's going on out there, but I do know that we've had more people checked into the hospital in the last ten minutes than we've had in two weeks. I know I wanted to keep you here until tomorrow, but I just can't afford to do that right now. I checked your charts and you're not showing any serious signs that imply that you need to stay here. Once I have some free time I'll catch up with you to make sure you're still doing fine, but for now I need to discharge you. Besides, Harry needs all the help he can get, and you're his partner," she said, looking worried for her friend.

"I'm free to go?" he raised his eyebrows at her sentence. He wasn't complaining, mind you; he was just really surprised that she was releasing him given how adamant she had been that he stayed in the first place. However given the current situation, he couldn't say he blamed her.

She nodded, "Just be careful, Malfoy. You're not completely healed yet, so don't run straight into the face of danger or anything like that. I know I can't stop you from going onto the field; Merlin knows the number of times I would have prevented Harry from doing something stupid if I had the chance. But be careful, okay?"

"Of course," he said, standing up slowly. She used her wand to summon his clothes, and handed him a neatly stacked pile of them. As she turned to leave, he couldn't help but call out to her, "Granger?"

"Yes?" she asked, sounding a bit surprised at his outburst.

"After all of this, can we talk? I haven't been able to clear the air with you after everything that's happened, and I would like a chance to do so," he said carefully. After all, he was working alongside her best friend, so it was only natural that they would run into each other every now and then.

She nodded, "Sure. I'll swing by the office one day, and we can talk then. But for now you should go. Harry needs you."

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><p>After Hermione had discharged Malfoy, she stared at the stack of files she had in her hand. What she didn't understand is how something that lasted for the span of five minutes could have caused so many people to wind up in the hospital. There were so many injuries; more than she had seen in her entire career as a healer. There were people with severed limbs, objects punctured through their bodies, broken bones, and internal bleeding. Not to mention the number of casualties that had occurred.<p>

She was stressed out; more stressed out than she had been when she wrote her NEWTs. Despite all the on-call Healers at the hospital, there were so many patients, and she had no idea how they were going to attend to everyone on time. It had gotten to the point where they had to assign the training healers the lighter cases, just so they would be freed up to take on the heavier, more life threatening ones.

After the earthquake had struck, she knew it was a matter of time before she was called back into work. Harry and Ron had left almost immediately, to go assess the level of damage and figure out what needed to be done. She had stayed a while longer to talk to Ginny and make sure her friend was okay, and to check on the baby quickly to make sure the magical phenomenon hadn't caused the baby and harm. Luckily enough, both Ginny and the baby were fine, leaving Hermione free to go work. She had sent her friend over to the Burrow, so that in case anything did happen, her mother would be there to tend to Ginny.

It was times like these when she was both grateful and annoyed that she wasn't getting the firsthand experience of the action. Being on the sidelines meant that she had no firsthand knowledge of what was happening in the world. She hated not knowing what was happening out there, and it scared her. For all she knew, the world could be ending, and she was stuck in this hospital.

But at the same time, she couldn't handle seeing anymore war. It had nearly devastated her to live through the first time, which was half the reason she couldn't be an Auror herself. All the loss and the pain had hurt her incredibly. And she really did enjoy what she did for a living.

"Healer Granger, we need you in Operation Room 4," a training healer called out for her as she popped her head into the room to talk to her.

Hermione placed her files down on the table and began to prep for surgery. It was going to be a long, long day.

* * *

><p>Draco entered the meeting room, carrying two cups of coffee in his hand. As soon as he had been discharged, he came straight to the office to try and figure out what was happening all around them.<p>

"Malfoy! Oh good you're here," his partner said with relief as he spotted Draco. He approached his partner and handed him one of the cups of coffee, "I wasn't quite sure Hermione would spring you, but I guess given the current situation, there wasn't a lot she could do."

"How bad is it?" Draco asked softly as he sat in one of the chairs. The room was filling in, with all spare Aurors who weren't out on the field.

"It's not looking good. I don't know the full details at the moment, but from what I've heard there's a lot of devastation out there," Harry said grimly.

Draco was about to respond when Kingsley called the room to order.

"As you all know, a few hours ago, an earthquake hit the British Isles causing damage to several parts of England. It was not a naturally caused phenomenon, as in the past those have been nowhere at the level that this incident was. On top of that, the magical activity surrounding the even was off the charts. We've had reports of surges of magical power in some witches and wizards, while others were left temporarily without any powers at all," Kingsley's low voice rumbled out.

As the former head of the Auror department, and the current Minister of Magic, Kinglsey took on the role of supervision during devastations such as these. There was a silent air to the room as he spoke with aurthority.

"What is the current damage report?" Kingsley asked, directing his question to one of the senior Aurors.

"Several buildings have collapsed from the quake, the Thames river has flooded, wiping out the nearby streets completely. The Muggles have lost their electricity completely, and the latest report claims that they don't know when they'll have everything working again. According to my contact at St. Mungos, there's been at least thirty deaths as of this moment, and several others in critical care at the hospital. In addition to this, there's a wide spread panic as no one knows what is happening, so we need to issue a statement in the near future to prevent fear from overruling the country," the Auror said, looking up from her papers as she spoke.

"I want you to get on a press release," Kingsley directed her, "Something that confirms that we don't know much as if this moment, but also assures the masses that we're working on figuring out what's happening and preventing further damage from occurring. Work with the public relations people to make sure the wording doesn't cause further panic. We need to keep the public calm, as their distress could only serve to further hinder us from figuring out what is happening."

The Auror nodded as she walked out of the room to complete the task that had been assigned to her.

"Have we seen anything like this in the past?" Kingsley asked another Auror.

"In 1382, there was a report of an Earthquake with damage on a level less than this, however the surges of power were reported to be a thing during the quake as well. There are a few other cases, but again, nothing has been on this level in the past," an Auror across from Draco stated as he ran his fingers through his hair. He could see the exhaustion on the man's face, and knew personally just how tired he felt at the moment.

"Do we know the causes of those earthquakes?" Kingsley inquired.

"No," the Auror shook his head, "The aftermath was the only thing recorded in each case, as they never did find a source.

"Do we have an originating source for the Earthquake?" Kinglsey asked, the stress seeping through his voice as he spoke.

One of the Aurors at the back responded, "I measured all the points that were impacted to see if it could be used to trace the source, and found a pattern I plotted the data, as the areas closer to the origination source seemed to have been hit the hardest. I triangulated the source and found the location," he said, hesitating slightly as his eyes flickered to Draco.

"And?" Kingsley prompted, somewhat impatiently.

"The source seems to be at Malfoy Manor," the Auror said, shirking away from the table.

A bunch of angry mutters began to fill through the room, as silent accusations began to spread.

"It wasn't me," Draco protested, "I was in the hospital since yesterday afternoon. Harry personally checked me in, and I came straight here once I was released."

"No one's accusing you Mr. Malfoy," Kingsley tried to get the room back into order.

"Like hell we aren't," a younger Auror stated, "We all know his position in the war. Maybe he's been biding his time since then, and decided to strike now. He probably got himself admitted to the hospital to give himself an alibi for the crime."

There were quite a few shouts of agreement in the room, causing Draco's stomach to drop. It hurt slightly to know that even after all his years of service, people would be able to turn on him easily for the mistakes he had made as a child, and that the people he worked with didn't really care to know him at all. The one thing that gave him hope was Harry's annoyed face through all of it.

A large portion of him was tempted to snap back and make some sort of remark that they were all a bunch of idiots. Who the hell did they think they were to keep questioning his motives after all the bloody years he had put into his work. They were a bunch of lunatics, that's what. He could see Potter stiffen beside him at the remark, and a semi-silent look from his partner kept him quiet. After all, there was a larger picture at play.

"Silence!" Kingsley's voice called out through the room, quieting everyone immediately. "I do not believe Mr. Malfoy was involved, and any problems you have with him, you either get over it, or find somewhere else to work. I will not tolerate such disrespect for you again. Now, Mr. Malfoy, that being said, something has occurred at your home. I would like you and Mr. Potter to lead a small team of Aurors to the site and try and find the source. This is to be an observation only mission. Do not engage with the source unless you are certain it is harmless, and even then take caution. I expect you back with the details shortly."

Draco stood alongside his partner as they left the room. Harry summoned a few other Aurors before he left, including Weasley to come with them.

"We can't apparate directly to the Manor because of wards, but we can apparate to the grounds outside the perimeter," Draco informed the team. "Once we get there, we'll proceed with caution."

The Aurors nodded, as they held onto their wands and apparated onto the premise. Once there, Draco began to head up the house. Since the war, he and his mother had redecorated the entire grounds, hoping to brighten up the place, given it's dark history. He lifted a few of the wards to allow the present company onto his land.

"I hope you know that Auror was out of line," Harry said, catching up to him. Weasley wasn't far behind, but he nodded in agreement. While the two of them still weren't on friendly terms, they respected the other.

"It's fine," Draco said, not really wanting to talk about it.

"No it isn't," Harry disagreed, but he didn't push it any further, and for that Draco was grateful.

The charms around the house seemed to keep it from being affected by the quake, but the grounds weren't as lucky. The further he walked toward the gardens, the darker and drier the grass began to look. Several of the shrubs had been uprooted and the flowers had looked as if Dementors had sucked the life out of them. It would probably take weeks to restore the gardens to their former glory. Draco was just relieved that his mother had been away from the house at the time.

"Do you see that?" Weasley pointed out, and Draco followed his finger with his eyes. He saw what appeared to be a large pit at the middle of the gardens.

"Stay here," Harry informed the Aurors behind them as a precautionary measure. Draco held his wand tightly in his hand as they slowly approached the hole, not quite sure what they would find inside. Somehow, in that pit was the reason for all the desolation that had occurred a short while ago.

As he, Weasley, and Potter stood at the edge of the pit, they peered in to see what was inside. What he was not expecting was to see three small children appearing to be arguing inside. However once the children saw the three older men above them, they stopped arguing immediately. He took the opportunity to study the children's features, causing him to gasp as realization hit him hard in the chest. The three children in the pit appeared to be younger versions of the three older men standing above them. It appeared as Harry and Weasley hit similar conclusions as he saw their eyes widen.

He didn't have a lot of time to draw conclusions, but he could tell right away that the children weren't past versions of themselves. He would remember if this had happened to him. In addition, there were tiny features on all of the children that didn't quite match what the older men had.

Before he could make any more assessments, the blond child that appeared to have been a mini version of him to look directly at Draco, locking eyes with him, before saying, "Dad?"


	3. The Verification

**Chapter 3**

Draco's head was spinning around with questions upon questions as to what could have happened. His first thought had been that the three children were indeed a younger version of himself, Potter, and Weasley. But obviously that was ridiculous, seeing how he would remember landing in a pit and somehow in the future. There was no way for the past version of himself to have gone to the future, regardless of what shenanigans Potter and Weasley got up to in school.

Harry and Weasley had been just as stunned at what happened, but Harry had collected himself and insisted they quietly get the children back to the Auror's office to deal with everything privately. The kids were in a state of shock, so leaving them out in the open would serve no purpose to help them figure out exactly what had happened to lead to the three kids in their current predicament.

They had decided for the time being, other than the Aurors who had been with them, the only person they would tell about everything was Kingsley, given his role as Minister. The last thing any of them needed was to cause any more of a panic over what was happening. And if there was one thing that Draco knew, public panic was quickly transformed into a deadly weapon even when they only knew half the facts.

He was currently standing behind a two way mirror with his arms crossed as he observed the three boys inside the room. The blonde mini version of himself seemed to be the youngest child, with the ginger as the middle one and the raven haired kid the oldest, judging strictly by their size. The redhead seemed to be worried and scared, while the older boys consoled him.

He heard the door behind him open and saw Weasley and Potter make their way into the room. When Weasley saw him, he didn't look impressed.

"Why is he here? I thought we decided we would look into this together," Weasley demanded as he stared at him.

Draco rolled his eyes. While he wasn't on as bad terms with Weasley as he was during school, the two of them were still not particularly as close as Draco was with Potter.

"He's my partner," Harry said in a warning tone towards his friend, "I trust him enough to be here. Besides, clearly he's involved with this. I hope you can be mature enough about this, Ron. There's too much at stake here for the past to be dragged back up again."

Weasley didn't look happy as he nodded in understanding. He turned to Draco as he said, "We alerted Hermione about needing her to come in to give the boys a check up to see if they have any physical damage done to them. While she might be extremely busy, she's probably also the only one we can completely trust to be discrete on the matter. She should be here in the next couple of minutes."

Draco pursed his lips. "Shall we go talk to the boys then?" he asked, as he turned to leave the room with Potter and Weasley following him out.

As they entered the room, the three boys turned to face them. Draco sat in one of the chairs on the other side of the table from the boys, while Harry and Weasley sat beside them.

The boys looked nervous as Draco spoke to them in a soft tone, "What are your names?" he asked them carefully.

"James Potter," The dark haired one said as he looked at Harry slightly sheepishly.

"Hugo Weasley," the ginger one said, and when the blonde one looked a bit too scared to respond, Scorpius responded for him, "and Scorpius Malfoy."

Harry looked startled at the revelation but tried to keep his face calm, "Is it safe to say that you're our children then?"

James nodded, "Yes, from the future."

Harry paled slightly, and it wasn't hard to figure out what was going through his mind; hell he was in the same position himself.

A large part of him was freaking out. He hadn't thought much about having a family in the recent years. Growing up it was nearly expected of him to find a nice pureblood girl and settle down with her. There were several women that his father had lined up for him, and had expected him to pick one to court while at Hogwarts.

He nearly laughed at the thought; it was such a long time ago and honestly felt like another lifetime ago. Since the war and his father's arrest, he had stopped thinking of things like producing an heir. It wasn't as if the Malfoy name was anything like it used to be. Sure, he had done a lot of good work to help get rid of some of the bad stigma, but as he was cruelly reminded a few hours ago, there were still a lot of people out there who didn't quite buy the whole reforming things.

Sure, he had gone on a few dates every now and then, and his mother was always trying to set him up with witches, but it very rarely got past the first date. He had honestly doubted that he would ever settle down and have a family of his own, and somehow he didn't seem to mind that fact very much. Yet somehow there was a child in front of him, stating otherwise.

"I suppose the three of you coming back is what caused the huge pulse of magical energy?" Draco asked them, causing the boys to squirm slightly.

Harry and Weasley looked at him, a little stunned as if they hadn't thought of such a thing themselves.

"Clearly however they came back caused some sort of disruption in the fabric of time. Whatever future they came from has imploded, thus the pulse of energy which caused the earthquake, flooding, and the other phenomenon," Draco informed his co-workers.

"_Bad things happen to wizards who meddle with time_," Harry appeared to be quoting. Draco didn't question the source, but nodded in agreement.

"I suppose that brings us to why," Weasley said, as he stared at his child in amazement. The boy had all of the trademark Weasley features, and even if he hadn't known who his father was, there was no questioning his heritage.

He couldn't help but feel skeptical however. What were the chances that the three of them would find their own children in that pit? Despite the similarities, he knew as a good Auror that simply taking their word for it would be insufficient. If anything, it could be a set up; he was sure there were plenty of potions out there that one could use to disguise the kids to look like their own. They also could have fed the children answers to get them to believe the kids, in order to develop trust. To what purpose it would serve, he was unsure, but discounting the possibility was out of the question.

"I'm sorry I'm so late," Draco heard a female voice say as the door opened and Granger came though. "You wouldn't believe how many people are at St. Mungos right now. I'll have to warn you Harry that my supervisor wasn't too pleased that you wanted me to come in right now, so you might get an angry letter later."

He turned to see Granger, whose hair had been tied up. She looked even more exhausted than when he had left her earlier, but she kept her poise as she straightened up when she saw the three boys sitting there in front of her.

Her brow furrowed but she didn't say anything; he assumed Potter had briefed her generally, but from the look on her face, that was not the case.

"Mummy?" Scorpius said as he saw her, causing Hermione's eyes to widen and his heart to stop.

First, not only did he apparently get married in the future, but he got married to Granger? There was no bloody way that he married her. He didn't even like the witch! Hell, he had seen her for the first time in years yesterday, yet apparently in the distant future they become a thing? He felt his throat tighten up; it was all too much for him to handle.

"I'll be right back," he stood. Harry seemed to be stunned himself, and Weasley was glaring at him furiously. "I should go brief Kingsley anyways."

And with that he walked out of the room. He would be back of course. But he needed to get away; he needed some time to process everything that happened and he needed to be alone.

* * *

><p>Hermione stared at the little boys in shock through the window as Harry briefed her on what was happening. There was no way she had a son, let alone with Malfoy! She wasn't sure whose idea of a joke this was, but it wasn't funny.<p>

He had taken her outside to talk to her so they could have some privacy from the children inside while Ron stayed with them. She couldn't quite say she blamed Malfoy for taking off; hell, she wanted to run as far away from this as possible. She had very little knowledge of what was happening inside or how/why the children had come back in the first place. What she did know was that life as she knew it was going to change drastically; that clearly if the three boys had come back from the future, there had to have been something so terrifying and wrong to do so. Which scared her terribly, seeing how despite danger Voldemort had been, no one had dared to travel back and prevent his birth or even try and guide him a different direction. So what could have happened to be so bad to warrant her supposed child and his friends to come back?

Harry had looked at her sympathetically, and she felt her heart drop.

"How can you even be sure that they are who they say they are?" she questioned her friend, "For all you know, they're lying about their identities."

"That's one of the reasons I asked you here," he informed her, "We're going to ask them a couple of questions to try and verify their parentage, but I'd also like you to perform a spell to check."

She was a bit shaky at first but she nodded as she walked back into the room. The blonde boy lit up at the sight of her and it broke her heart slightly. If he was back here, had something happened to the future version of herself? He was just a young child, yet here he was.

Which begged the question of why the children were sitting here in the first place. Why hadn't Hermione or whomever in the future chosen to send themselves back? Why the children? Clearly it would have been easier to have an adult who completely understood the situation and the events of the future back with them, instead of the children. It didn't make sense to her.

She smiled at the three boys, "We need to ask you boys a few questions okay?"

James nodded, taking the lead for the boys, "Sounds good, Aunt Mione," he said, as he took Scorpius' hand in his own.

"First we need to make sure you are who you say you are," she said lightly, trying to keep them calm. "Your father is going to ask you some things, so answer it however you think fit."

Hugo looked nervous, "Are we in trouble?"

"No!" Ron insisted firmly, "Just making sure of some stuff okay, boys?"

"Constant Vegilance?" Scorpius asked, stuttering over the second word as he attempted to pronounce _vigilance_.

Harry gave her a look, and Hermione immediately understood. It was definitely a good sign that the kids knew that phrase, but then again Professor Moody had used it so often that anyone would know about it.

"Yes," Hermione said gently.

"Can you think of something to tell us that only the three of you would know, or something that we don't tell a lot of people?" Harry asked the boys.

"Like a secret?" Hugo asked in confusion.

Hermione listened along silently as she raised her wand. She circled a spell around Harry and James quickly to test the DNA result, and saw instantly that it was a match through a thin white band of light wrapping around the two of them. She wasn't really surprised, as the boy definitely had Harry's messy hair. Moving on, she did Ron and Hugo, which came out positive as well.

She looked at the blonde kid in front of her. While he probably was Malfoy's son, she was afraid to test the spell with herself and the child. If it was positive, it would mean that in one future she was supposed to get together with Malfoy, and while she had often dreamed about peeking into the future to know how her life was and who she was with, now that the chance was right in front of her, she couldn't help but feel squeamish at the idea.

Ron seemed to notice her hesitation, but he gave her a nod. She could tell that he wasn't too pleased about her apparent future choice of a husband, but he hadn't said anything yet, as not to disturb the children who wouldn't quite understand why it was such a big deal.

She took a deep breath as she waved her wand around herself and Scorpius and held it as she waited for the results. She saw the band of light around herself and her son begin to appear and waited for the colour to show, to indicate the truth of the matter. As she saw the white shine through, she felt herself grow faint, but kept her face neutral to hide her feelings.

"You, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione became friends when you saved Aunt Hermione from a troll," James said, scratching his head.

Hermione nodded at Harry to confirm what the spell had indicated. James' secret had helped as well, as the story was not one that was public knowledge. While people had known of the event, very few knew that it was what started the friendship.

Malfoy slipped back into the room at that point, still looking paler than normal. As he did, Hermione quickly cast the same spell she had used earlier to check if Scorpius was indeed his son as well. She felt slightly hopeful that perhaps he might not be, but she wasn't all that shocked when the spell was once again positive. Malfoy leaned against the table as he gave her a strange look, but he seemed to realise what the spell had meant, and his grip on the table tightened considerably.

She could see the boys begin to yawn, and she could tell they were just as exhausted as she felt.

"Harry, we should get these boys some sleep," she prompted them slightly. "They're drained, and perhaps it would be better for all of us if we allow them some rest before getting the rest of the story."

He looked like he wanted to protest, but she gave him a firm look and he conceded, "I don't suppose you know what to do about sleeping arrangements?"

"I'll take the three boys to Grimmuald Place," Hermione said. "I don't think they'll want to be separated. Ginny and I can watch them together."

"Granger, can I have a word?" Malfoy interrupted at that, "Alone?" His face was tense and he appeared to be burning a hole in her forehead.

She felt herself get nervous, but agreed as she stood from the chair and followed him into the next room, "What, Malfoy? I know you wanted to talk earlier, but surely that can wait until later?"

"I don't want to talk about that," he said, looking stiff. "Look, I know you don't quite like me, but Scorpius is my son too; shouldn't I have the right to say what happens to him over night? I refuse to let you push me to the side and let you make all the decisions. You can't just take complete control and not even consult me."

She seemed slightly shocked at that, "That wasn't why I wanted Scorpius over at Harry's, Malfoy," she said. "I don't know what kind of relationship we have in the future, and honestly, I don't care at this point. I only said that because I assumed you, Harry, and Ron would probably get called back in to work early tomorrow morning, which at this point is really only a few hours away. I just thought that if that was the case, Ginny and I could take care of the boys, seeing how Ginny is taking the season off from Quidditch, and I legally can't work anymore today seeing how I've already put in all my hours and overtime hours."

He seemed to relax slightly at this but wasn't completely satisfied, "I still don't want to leave him alone, Granger. Damn it, I just found out I had a kid, and the first thing I do will not be to abandon him."

She understood this, "Of course, Malfoy. Now I can't speak for Harry really, but I'm sure he'd be fine with letting you stay the night over at his place, all things considering. I'm not going to keep you from him, Malfoy. We have a lot to figure out and talk about, but it can all wait for later. Now, can we go back in?"

He nodded, as he followed her back into the room.

"Harry, I hope you don't mind, but I've invited Malfoy to stay the night," she said. Harry looked at his partner, but simply nodded.

"Of course, we have plenty of spare rooms that you could stay in," he said, tiredly.

Scorpius stood from his chair and walked over to where she was standing and slipped his hand through hers. She could tell that he was trying to make a connection to her. Hermione couldn't help but wonder if the poor boy even knew or understood what had happened to him. She squeezed his hand back and gave him a soft smile.

She extended her hand out to Malfoy to side along with her back to Harry's place. There was a lot to figure out still, but it would have to wait until they all got a decent night's sleep.

* * *

><p>In another part of England, a man stood at the window as he watched the chaos ensue before him. The sudden pulse of magic meant that someone else was getting a move on to either stop or take over what it was that he had planned on doing, and if he wasn't careful, he would find himself at a loss. It appeared that his hand would be forced, and he would need to make a move on his plan far sooner than he had originally planned.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! I'm having a lot of fun writing this. Let me know what you think, and as always, reviews are greatly appreciated.


	4. Talking

**A/N: ** I know a few of you guys were wondering about the ages of the boys to help you picture them. I didn't tell you as of yet because the characters itself didn't know. All they knew was that these young boys suddenly appeared. Their ages were the least of their worries. But with that said, you will find out in this chapter, so hope it helps!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

Hermione sat at the table, a cup of tea in front of her, and her head between her hands. She could still feel the steam from the tea rising up and against her skin, as the smell wafted through her nose. She had put the kettle on as Harry and Ginny were putting the children to sleep in one of the guestrooms, and poured it into five cups.

Ron was pacing back and forth across the room, while Malfoy sat across from her, staring at the wall, uncomfortably. It had barely been half an hour since they left the Aurors' office and she couldn't bring herself to face the others in the room just yet.

She wasn't ready to be a mother. She hadn't mentally prepared for it. Hermione had one day wanted to have children of her own, to have a nice little family with two or three kids. But that desire was one for several years from now.

All of this was so draining, and part of her wished it had never happened. If the children had never come back, she would still be living her days out as a Healer, going on the odd date here and there, and maybe if she were lucky she would find love. Yet here she was now, with a new destiny thrust into her lap; something she never wanted.

She supposed it was how Harry had felt. He never asked to be the Boy Who Lived, yet this huge destiny was thrust upon him from a young age.

"They're asleep," Ginny announced as she and Harry entered the kitchen. The pair of them sat at the table beside her, and Ron rested his hands on the back of the free chair. "Now can someone tell me what happened? Who are those children?"

"Our kids," Hermione said, slightly pale. "They're our kids from the future."

Ginny blanched, "How is that even possible? She asked, touching her protruding stomach, "Do you mean to tell me that one of those kids is the child that is currently in my stomach right now?"

Hermione's eyes widened, she hadn't even considered that James was who Ginny was currently pregnant with.

"Maybe," Hermione said, "We don't know when they're from yet. They could be from twenty years from now and he could be your fourth child or something like that."

Harry shook his head, "We were going to go with James if it was a boy," he said softly. "How is that even going to work? With James being here in two different ways."

"Well usually it shouldn't make a difference," She informed the group, "Remember in third year when we used the time turner to save Buckbeak? We were in two places at once, but our presence alerted no one there. But this is different. The magical discharge released wasn't just from the children coming back. They altered the timeline in permanent ways, and the result was the timeline they're from combusting, being destroyed by their mere presence here. They destroyed one of the ways the future was going to occur forever."

"Like the Loom of Fate," Malfoy spoke up, without making eye contact with her. "There's this magical theory based on this ancient Greek myth that in life there are so many different choices surrounding us, and that every decision we make weaves the Loom of Fate, and seals our future."

"Precisely," she nodded, "The children coming back changed everything. And because of that, the child you're carry Ginny, might have been James, but because they came back, the fetus will develop differently and will become an entirely different person all together. "

Her ginger friend let out a sigh of relief, "Well that fixes some complications."

"But won't that be all _Back to the Future_ where the children will cease to exist due to them interfering with time?" Harry questioned, receiving confused looks from the purebloods around them.

She shook her head, "There are tales, myths even, of time travellers, but there have been very rare instances where they've affected themselves in ways like that; something about the magical essence in their souls needing to continue to exist in one form or another."

There was silence around the table before Ron spoke up again, "They're so young," he mused, "Why would any of us send them back to the past without any notes or memories or any sort of clue as to why they're here."

"Maybe there wasn't enough time," Malfoy said grimly, "If one of us sent them back, maybe we didn't have time to prepare anything to send with them."

The room seemed tensed at that horrid thought. None of them wanted to say the unthinkable that something had happened to them, preventing them from sending more helpful knowledge back with the kids.

"But we did," Hermione reminded the group, "We have their memories; both what they can tell us, and the physical memory itself. If we didn't have time, we must have thought that there were facts in the children's memories that could help us stop whatever it was that happened, from happening.

"They're so young," Ginny commented silently. "How old are they?"

Hermione exchanged a look with Harry, "We didn't get to asking them that," she said, "We didn't get to asking them a lot of things. The poor things were exhausted. I would say no more than eight for James, and Hugo and Scorpius are within three years younger than that."

"So what do we do?" Ron asked the group.

"For now?" Harry asked, "Nothing. In the morning we can ask them more questions, and look at their memories in a pensive, but unless there's some other crisis between now and then, we might as well all get some sleep. Hermione, you and Ron can have your usual bedrooms, and I've already showed Draco the guest room he'll be staying in.

Ginny nodded as she stood up to leave, Harry following closely behind her. Ron looked hesitant to go, seeing how the room only would contain her and the apparent father of her future child, but she gave him a look to indicate she would be fine. She stood and cleared the cups with a flick of her wand, and turned when she heard Malfoy clear his throat.

"I suppose it's time for us to have the talk you wanted earlier," she commented lightly as she sat back down at the table with him.

He ran his fingers through his hair, "Except now we have much more to talk about than I had initially planned for us to discuss," he sighed.

"Yes, we do," she agreed. There were a few moments of silence between the two of them, so she said, "How about we start with what you originally wanted to talk about and go from there?"

He nodded at that, "I wanted to talk to you earlier because I never did get a chance to formally apologise for everything that happened while we were at school. I've already done so with Potter, and Weasley and I have a faint unspoken agreement that neither of us will try to kill each other, but I've never gotten to talk to you. I've been putting it off because I was so ashamed of how I treated you, but I want you to know that I'm not that person anymore."

"I know," she said softly as she looked at him, "Harry would never work beside you if he thought you hadn't changed.

"I really am sorry for everything," he said with a sincere voice, "For how I treated you, for the names I called you, for tormenting you and harassing you."

"I forgive you, Malfoy," Hermione said gently.

"I suppose we need to talk about the fact that apparently in the future we have a kid together," he said drily.

"Yes," she agreed, "It would be worth discussing."

"You said yourself that things are going to change because they came back," Malfoy reminded her, "Maybe now in this new future we aren't meant to be together. Maybe this is one of those things that get changed. Let's be honest, Granger. The two of us would never work together. One of us would end up killing the other."

"Probably," she nodded, "Just because we know one version of the future doesn't mean we know ours now. It's not like we need to suddenly change everything and pretend to be madly in love with each other. We can platonically raise Scorpius in this reality and feel free to be with whomever we desire."

"It's unrealistic to expect us to be forced together by a kid," he agreed.

"Exactly," she said. "I'm glad we sorted all of that out."

"As am I," he said, standing. "I'll see you tomorrow, Granger," he said as he walked out of the room.

She stayed in her chair for a few more moments, thinking over the conversation that just happened, as she ignored the tiny little part of her that was disappointed by the outcome of the conversation.

* * *

><p>Hermione awoke early the next morning as the streaks of sunlight from the window hit her face. She was used to not getting more than a few hours of sleep per night from her time at Hogwarts and the year she spent on the run, so it didn't really surprise her how refreshed she felt, despite the events that happened the night before.<p>

She walked over to the closet which she placed a few spare clothes over the years from nights of staying over at her friends' home and grabbed a robe to wear over her pyjamas, before putting her hair up in a messy little bun on the top of her head.

As she made her way down the stairs she could smell sausage and bacon wafting through the house. She half expected Ginny or Harry to be in the kitchen preparing breakfast, so when she reached the bottom landing and saw Malfoy standing over the stove with a spatula in one hand and the other holding the frying pan, she couldn't help but feel shocked.

On the table were scrambled eggs, toast, waffles, and juice.

"Good morning," the blonde man said as he turned to face her. He had a relaxed look on his face, and she wondered if such a feat was considered normal for him.

"Did you make all of this yourself?" she couldn't help but ask as she held one of her arms, slightly self-conscious about her appearance. The man in front of her had a way of making her feel highly underdressed, as he appeared to have showered and dressed first thing this morning. His hair wasn't styled as it had been back while they were a school, but there was still a definite neat appearance to it.

"With the help of magic," he nodded as he turned over a piece of bacon, "Multiplying charms can be quite helpful when it comes to cooking large meals."

She smiled at that, "That's rather clever of you. Definitely saves you time from cooking for everyone. I'm sure Ginny and Harry are going to be thankful to not have to produce breakfast this morning."

He moved to place the food he was cooking on a large plate, before placing it on the table.

"Well I definitely don't want to make the pregnant woman cook for everyone, and who knows if Potter can even cook a meal without burning it to a crisp," he said lightly, causing her to laugh.

"He's not all that bad," she mentioned. "He used to cook for his extended family when he was younger so he picked up a few things here and there. I wouldn't trust him with Christmas dinner or anything like that, but he's pretty good for things like this."

"That's not something I would have considered," Malfoy said, sounding slightly stunned.

"Oh?" she teased, "So you don't talk about cooking habits while on active duty with him?"

He grinned, "I can honestly say conversation of the sort has never come up."

She sat down at the table when Harry came into the room, Ron trailing behind him. Neither men looked well rested as they sat down beside her, though Ron perked up considerably at the sight of the meal in front of them.

"Did you check on the boys?" Hermione asked Harry as he ran his hands through his hair.

Harry nodded as he said, "Yeah. They were fast asleep still so I didn't want to wake them. We need to question them eventually, but I thought they deserved a few more hours of sleep."

"We have to be careful when we do," Hermione said cautiously, "We don't know what they've seen, or what happened to them in their timeline. They could be traumatized and we can't push them too much. I would ask them basic questions today, and get their memories for later, but we need to be gentle when we ask them deeper questions like why they came back."

"Of course," Ron agreed as Draco sat down beside them.

There was a sound of pecking at the window and Hermione turned to see an owl with letter between its claws. As Harry let the bird in, it dropped of the letter and newspapers it was holding onto the table.

Hermione grabbed the Daily Prophet from the table. The picture was a far-shot of London in the aftermath of the chaos and the paper was calling for answers that the rest of the world so desperately desired. She looked over at the muggle paper she had subscribed to a year earlier and saw similar confusion. The only difference was that they were trying to use scientific causes to explain what happened while Hermione knew better.

Harry tossed the letter he had been reading onto the table, "Kingsley wants to call a press conference to talk about what happened. He's not going to mention the boys or the exact cause, but he's going to give them just enough to satisfy the world without giving away too much of the truth."

"Sounds like the right thing to do. They deserve to know that the world isn't falling apart at the seams," Malfoy agreed as he sipped a cup of Earl Grey tea.

"Mommy?" she heard a tiny voice call out. She turned to see Scorpius standing in the doorway, a bit unsure, with James holding his hand and Hugo reassuringly holding the blonde's shoulder.

She stood from her chair to bring the boys to the table. As she did so, Scorpius clung tightly to her leg. She was a bit uncomfortable at the gesture, but she reached down to pick up the boy to carry him. He wrapped his arms around her neck as she walked back over to her chair. While the other two boys found their own seats, Scorpius was too clingy to let go. She didn't know much about children, but she supposed it was because he was worried something was going to happen to her, _'Again,_' she couldn't help but wonder as she felt a pang in her chest.

So as Hermione sat down, she kept her future child on her lap, as her friends watched with wonder. There was an unreadable look on Malfoy's face, but she chose to ignore it, as she placed a few extra pieces of the assortment on food on her plate for Scorpius to eat. The two older ones wasted no time before digging into their food.

"So James, we were just curious, how old are you boys?" Harry asked his son casually.

"I'm 7," he said with a toothy grin, "Hugo is 6, and Scorpy just turned 5 a few months ago."

Harry nodded as Ron stared at Hugo in wonder. "How much of what happened do you remember? Do you know where you are now?"

"I'm at home," James said, a bit confused. "We do still live here right?"

"We do," Ginny's voice carried out as she entered the room. "I think your father meant to ask if you understood _when_ in time you are."

"The past? Aunty Mione said the potion was meant to take us back to the past," he said, unsure of his answer.

"Good," Hermione said, giving him a supportive smile, "So what year is it where you are?" she asked as Scorpius squirmed in her lap to reach for a piece of sausage that she had finished cutting up for him.

"2008," Hugo answered proudly, causing Ron to give him a wide grin. Ginny shook her head in amusement as she sat on the other side of James to place some food on his plate. Hugo, like his father, was gladly helping himself. "Dad, where's Mom?"

Ron turned pink slightly. It seemed that the idea that he was apparently also married in the future had slipped his mind.

"What's your mother's name?" Ginny asked softly.

"Mom?" Hugo asked, slightly confused.

"Yes, but what do others call her?" Hermione tried, "Like what do Scorpius and James call your mother?"

"Aunty Luna," James answered for his cousin. "We call her Aunty Luna."

Ron's face crinkled at that, but his reaction was not as dramatic as it could have been. She made a mental note to ask him about it later. Malfoy merely smirked at that. When she caught his eye and gave him an amused look, he pretended to use his napkin to wipe his face to hide from it.

"We need to ask you boys something," Hermione said softly, "Can you tell us about what happened for us to send you back here?"

"It wasn't safe anymore," James said, getting quiet as he spoke. "You said it wasn't safe anymore and that you needed us to do something really important."

"A super-secret mission," Hugo supplied.

Hermione exchanged a look with the adults around her, "Can you tell us everything that happened to make it 'not safe anymore'?" she asked them.

James took a deep breath before starting to speak.


	5. Losses

**Chapter 5**

Hermione sat forward in her chair, as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt slightly. Scorpius was still squirming around in her lap, and while it was a strange sensation, it was not an unpleasant one. She didn't miss the glances Malfoy sent her way as he watched her and their apparently son interact, but she tried not to put too much stock into it as she settled for simply holding the child closely to make sure he didn't accidently fall off the chair. The last thing she needed was to injure him after being a mother for all of a few hours.

"We don't really know much of how it began," James spoke softly, as he began to explain to them what had happened to cause the children to come back. "We were really young when it started, and to be fair, I don't know if any of you guys made all the connections in the early stages. There were a series of strange things happening over the world, and it seemed like they were random things that happened. But we remember what happened in the last year or so. That was when it started to get really bad."

Hugo whimpered slightly, and Hermione could see fear in his eyes as he seemed to be thinking about a fact that he had tried very hard to forget. Ginny noticed it too, and she placed a comforting arm around her future nephew to hold him tenderly. The boy seemed to relax slightly at that, but it hadn't changed his demeanor much.

She half wanted to stop and take the other two boys out of the room while James spoke, but she figured it would be best to separate them as little as possible after everything that had happened, to offer them a little bit of stability in their lives.

"Dad said it wasn't safe after a while for us to go out to Diagon Alley anymore," James continued. "We only ever went to the homes of our family. Aunt 'Mione told us one day that we had to promise to be careful with everything we did. After a while you stopped going to work too, and even though you wouldn't tell us what was happening, we knew that it was really bad."

"I stopped going to work?" Harry asked, slightly worried. Hermione could understand. Harry's job might have been offered to him for his efforts during the war, but it was clear to everyone that he deserved it. He worked hard every day, and had helped with the capture of numerous Death Eaters. For him to stop going to work meant that whatever was happening in their world would have been of disastrous consequences.

James simply shook his head, "**All** of you stopped working. It was terrible for you. Aunt Mione and Mom hated being cooped up all day, and Uncle Ron used to borrow Dad's cloak to try and go out without being spotted by them…" he said, voice trailing off. She gave Malfoy a worried glance as Scorpius began to squirm in her lap as he tried to occupy himself with playing with her hair.

Hugo started crying softly, and the room grew very silent, wondering what would cause such a reaction. The six year old reached for Ron, and while her friend looked highly uncomfortable with the tears, he picked up the boy from his chair and held him tightly against his chest to offer a bit of comfort for the child.

"It's okay, Buddy," Ron tried to console him. "You're safe now. I got you," he said, rubbing the young child's back.

"Uncle Ron, you died during one of those outings," James whispered softly. "It's been weird seeing you back here. And it's been really hard on Hugo. He was only four when it happened and he didn't understand at first, and Aunt Luna tried to explain to him that he was gone, but it took a while. He didn't get that you were gone. I don't think he still understands what it meant, but he knows he didn't see you every day, and that hurt him a lot."

Ron was silent at that, and she could see him look upset. She didn't really blame him too much. While she suspected that something could have happened to her in the future, it hadn't been confirmed like Ron's had.

He settled for holding his child tighter, to reassure both of them that he was currently alive and well. Harry wrapped his arm around his wife who was shaking slightly at the news of her brother. She felt it too; the fear that if it happened once, it was possible it could again. Sure, now that the kids were here everything would be different, but that didn't mean that certain things wouldn't happen again. And that thought was terrifying. What if they failed again?

"Dad was the most upset by everything," James said as he glanced at his father. "You blamed yourself for allowing him to go out by himself. You thought you were letting him get some freedom by leaving, and when he died, you blamed yourself for not stopping it. You became reckless with your actions; seeking fights with anyone and everyone you suspected of being involved. And it ended up costing you movement in your legs."

Harry choked slightly at that, and Hermione frowned at the idea that her friend could become paralyzed. It was a painful thought and she wasn't quite sure how to deal with it. Ginny looked extremely upset as she held her husband's hand softly.

She looked down to see Scorpius, who had gotten very quiet, clinging on to her tightly, refusing to let go. He had turned around so that he could press his tiny body into her chest, and she wrapped her arms around his back instinctively and pulled him in closely. She wondered if it was a good idea for him to be in the room at the moment. While James was only a few years older than her own child, he was handling everything the best out of the children. Her heart broke for him having to mature far beyond his years to deal with everything that had happened. She had often hoped, when she thought about the future, that her own kids would never have to prematurely face things that were as harsh of a reality as what she and her friends dealt with.

Malfoy looked worried as well; he reached over slightly and stroked Scorpius' hair in an effort to comfort him slightly.

It was almost as if for yesterday Scorpius had felt as if he were living in a dream where everything was fine again, but with James talking about all that had happened, her son was reliving what he had desperately tried to forget.

She held him tighter and softly whispered reassuring things to him. Hugo wasn't doing much better himself and Ron looked helpless to his plight.

"How did you come back here?" Hermione asked, to try and save the children any more trauma or pain.

"We were at your house, playing with toys when you ran into the room," James said to her. "You had been really badly hurt, but were trying to seem like nothing was wrong. You had a potion in your hand and said it was important that we drank it right then. It smelled terrible, but you said it was really important," James hesitated. "I think something happened to Uncle Draco, because you were crying, from more than just pain."

Malfoy squirmed nervously beside her, and she wanted to reassure him as well. She figured that if she had been badly injured in the future then she didn't think she would have a lot of time left. Had she known she wouldn't make it? Did she send them back because she was dying, and her _husband_ was already gone, to given them a chance to change things?

"Where was I?" Harry asked softly.

"Gone," James said hollowly. "We were at her house because you and Mum were targeted a few days before. You were gone."

Harry looked at his wife, whose hormones must have kicked in, because she was crying silently. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tenderly. With his other hand, he pulled James in against him as well, to offer comfort to his child.

Malfoy kept rubbing Scorpius' back, in an attempt to soothe the two of them, and she didn't try to stop him.

They still didn't know what had happened in the world to cause the events to unravel as they did, nor did they know who was responsible. But they did know their fates, and that their children came back to the past to try and stop it.

Her arms tightened against her child and Scorpius simply hugged her back.

It still was a strange concept that the blonde in front of her could be hers, and she had yet to think of what it meant. She knew she would have to eventually tell others what happened, and she wasn't quite sure how to explain that apparently she had a child with Malfoy.

She had never been against motherhood, and children were always something she wanted. She might not have been ready for it, but it felt right to have him here in her lap. She cared for the child deeply and it had barely been twelve hours since everything had happened.

If there was one thing she knew, it was that she was going to try her hardest to put a stop to the way the future was meant to turn out. She would keep her life, her friends' and her family's. If she could help it, no one would be dying any time soon.

* * *

><p>Hermione stood beside Harry outside the Burrow as they knocked on the door. Ginny had stayed home with Malfoy and Ron to keep the children occupied while they went to inform the remnants of the Order what had happened. While it was important to keep the news that the children had come had come back to the past, if they wanted any sort of a chance of preventing that future from happening, they would need all the help they could get. They had already sent out letters asking everyone to gather at the Burrow, saying that there was something they needed to talk to them about, but due to fear of interception, they didn't provide much more details.<p>

"It's going to be okay, Hermione," Harry reassured her softly.

"How do you know?" she said in a soft voice. "You know how the Weasleys feel about the Malfoys! I'm surprised Ron hasn't tried to hex Malfoy already for apparently being married to me in the future. What if they want nothing to do with me because of it? You know Molly has been secretly hoping Ron and I would get back together! You see her at every social gathering finding reasons to try and put us together, either seating wise or in terms of chores, hoping it will lead to reconciliation."

"Because they love you," Harry said firmly. "They love you regardless of whether you're with Ron or not. And maybe they might be upset that you're with Malfoy, but they wouldn't hate you for that. He's a good guy, Hermione. He's had a rough couple of years, but he's proved over and over again that he's changed. It surprises me every day to see how far he's come, but he's a good person. Otherwise I would have been the first person on the list to kill him for finding out that he apparently marries you."

She smiled at that as she reached up to knock on the door. When Molly opened the door, she instantly looked worried at the sight of them.

"What is it? Is everything alright? Did something happen to Ginny?" she asked, sounding flustered as the first thought seemed to rush to her mind, despite being informed why they were coming.

"She's fine," Harry assured his Mother-In-Law. "We just needed to talk to everyone about what's been happening since yesterday. There have been some _developments_ that I thought we should share."

Molly seemed relieved, "Ah your letter. Well come in, come in," she ushered as she lead them to the kitchen.

Hermione sat in a free seat as Harry leaned against a counter. It didn't take long for the rest of the Weasleys, McGonagall and a few others to make an appearance, and within half an hour, everyone was seated and ready to go.

She and Harry were sitting beside each other at the long table as the others faced them.

"So I suppose you're going to tell us what the hell happened yesterday?" George asked, a brow raised.

Harry nodded slightly as he spoke, "First I need you to know that what we're about to tell you is confidential. No one can know anything said in this room if they weren't present. The public will not be privy to this, and only to details of what happened in a vague general sense."

She saw nods of understanding around the room as she spoke next, "The earthquake, the discharge of magic, all of it was the result of a potion."

"Like an explosion?" Bill asked as Fleur worriedly placed an arm around her husband.

"A time-travel potion of sorts," she corrected. "The discharge was the result of a future reality collapsing."

"Does that mean someone came from the past?" the Headmistress of Hogwarts asked with a frown.

"From the future," Harry said, "And not a person, but people who came from the future; more specifically, three children arrived last night at Malfoy Manor."

The air around the room became dark as the minds of the people automatically jumped to the worst possible scenario.

"It wasn't his fault," Hermione rushed to say, to stop their train of thought. "Malfoy had no part in it. He didn't even know what happened until after he arrived."

"How can you be so sure?" Charlie asked with a frown.

"Because of who the children are," Hermione informed them. When they looked at her expectantly she said, "They're our children. Harry, Mine, and Ron's sons all came back from the future. Malfoy, or the one here at least, didn't have a part in them coming back."

"Each of us had a child appear," Harry continued. "It wasn't dark magic that brought them back, since from what we can tell, Hermione was the one who sent them back in the first place."

"Why would you have needed to have done so?" Molly asked, wrinkles showing up on her face as her forehead creased.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a look before she said, "I don't know. We still have no idea what happened to cause us to send them back. But whatever it was had devastating consequences. There were…a lot of personal loses."

Harry wrapped an arm around her softly and Arthur was one of the people in the room who looked upset at the news.

"What does Malfoy have to do with all of this?" Percy asked. "How do you know he wasn't the reason something happened in the future?"

"Because…" Hermione's voice trailed off as she helplessly looked at Harry for help.

"Because he's the father of Hermione's future son," Harry filled in for her, earning gasps around the room.

Molly looked devastated but she tried to cover it up as she realised what Hermione had been fretting about earlier.

"I can't believe you marry him!" George exclaimed in surprise. "I mean from all the tension between the two of you at school, the idea of you two being married is just so-"

"Weird," Bill filled in.

"Strange," Charlie added.

"Unpredictable," Percy said solemnly.

She couldn't help but smile at that, "Trust me, I know. We're not even sure that we'll be even friends in this time line, so nothing to worry about," she said. Hermione was relieved to see that no one was getting up and accusing her of 'sleeping with the enemy' or something along those lines.

While the Weasley family was quick to anger with their short tempers, she could tell that in the years following the war, they had all matured greatly. And for that she was thankful. While she and her parents were on speaking terms, they didn't always understand her life or her choices. They tried their best to comprehend different things that happened in her life that were magic related, but it wasn't the same because they could never quite be sure the significance of certain things.

It was probably why she felt so close to Harry and the Weasley family; because they had been there for her and helped her when she needed it. It had been slightly weird the first few weeks at the Burrow after her break up with Ron, especially with Molly's attempts at meddling, but they had been there for her despite it all.

"So what's our next move?" McGonagall asked, bringing the meeting back to the original direction it had been heading.

"We need to see their memories. Maybe the children know something that they've seen or heard but couldn't fully process it at the time. Hopefully we can get a better idea of what's happening," Hermione informed the group. "Then we have to see where to go from there."

Harry nodded, "Can some of you look into other channels to see what others know as well. I want to know what others are speculating about what happened. Maybe whoever causes the future to turn to shit already has something up their sleeves and we can learn something about it."

The room buzzed silently, and Hermione could tell that the meeting had come to an end. She and Harry stood to leave, saying their good byes to the others, before leaving the room and apparating back to her friend's home.


	6. Meeting Old Foes and Acquaintances

**Chapter 6**

Hermione sighed as she rubbed her temples. She was sitting at the table of Harry's home, where she, Malfoy, and Ron seemingly had taken up temporary residence due to the children's sudden presence in their lives.

She knew her friend didn't mind their presence; growing up the way he did, he often had told her that he loved the idea of having a big family, much like his wife's had been. But he also knew there would be no way he could convince his wife to pop out that amount of children if he valued his safety and life.

They had yet to bring up again the future in which the children had been raised in, seeing how it had gone down last time. They had got the answers they required, but the price was the stability of the poor kids. Scorpius had insisted on spending all him time with either her or Malfoy, Hugo had begun to question where his mother was, to Ron's dismay, and even James, who had been so strong for all of it, had started to crack at the reality of the situation.

So they had decided to give it a break; let the children adapt slowly to the world in front of them . She had no idea if they would be staying here after everything was said and done, assuming they were successful of course. The future they had come from had long been destroyed, and the only other two possibilities involved the children going off into some unknown reality, or staying with them. Both of which had consequences that Hermione preferred not to think about.

In the meantime they settled for taking a step back from it all. The first thing to do would be to help the country heal after the magical discharge that happened a few days prior. While answers had been given to placate the public, there was still a massive surge of panic and confusion while they struggled to accept the Minister's soothing words. She wasn't sure she blamed them; if she didn't know herself the reason for all of it, she would have marched straight up to Kingsley and demanded an explanation.

After that, they would figure out where to go from there. They would need to figure out who was responsible for the future, and figure out _why_. It could be something simple, like a hunger for power and money, but it also could run so much deeper than that.

Then would come the task of putting a stop to it. Clearly it was going to be a large task that somehow been bestowed to them once more. She wasn't quite sure how she and her friends somehow always found themselves in this scenario, yet here they were again tasked with saving the wizarding and muggle worlds combined. Obviously doing so once in her lifetime was too little of an accomplishment.

She sighed again as she tried to concentrate on the patient's file in front of her. Her short lived break from work had ended and she had a consultation in a few hours that she needed to prep for. It was a person who had been injured in the earthquake, but was non-life threatening, so they had been placed lower in the queue of patients who needed to be treated. Apparently said patient had suffered from amnesia after a direct surge of power had flown through her and hadn't been grounded immediately, leaving her with the belief that she was currently a muggle.

Memory reversals could be tricky, but after her parents, she had picked up the odd trick or so when it came to the procedure, making the case fall straight into her lap.

"Not easy to get things done when there's so much around you to serve as a distraction, is there?" Ron asked her, knowingly as he slipped into the seat beside her at the table.

"I just don't know how I'm supposed to focus on anything right now," she said as she ran her fingers through her hair, then stopping as she rested her head into her hand.

"I know what you mean," he said comfortingly, "We're supposed to go back to work tomorrow and have a meeting with Kingsley about what we've learnt, but I can't imagine leaving the kids here all alone," he said voice breaking slightly, "Not after everything they've gone through, you know?"

"I do," she nodded, "They're so tiny; so young. It just makes me so mad, you know? We gave up our childhoods and fought a bloody war because we wanted the future generations to never have to experience this sort of pain or torture that we went through. But they're even younger than we are, and have seen so much worse pain. Harry never knew his parents, and while he carries that pain, he never saw them die at an age he could understand it. They were just not there. And both of us still have ours. But those children? In a way they've suffered far worse than we ever have."

A tear slipped down her face at that, and Harry who had just entered the room immediately gave her a concerned look and Ron relayed the concerns she just voiced to their friend.

"I know," Harry said, voice darkening. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to bring her in closely. "I just wanted my children to have relatively normal lives, you know? I mean I know it's not going to be easy, but I wanted it to be carefree for them. Not this; never this."

Ron nodded, "I know, trust me, I know. A large part of me wants to obliviate them so they don't remember what they've gone through. But then whatever happened in their future will probably come to pass in ours as well. And we can't quite ignore it as much as I want to."

"Trouble always had a way of finding us," Harry said with a wry grin.

"That it did," Hermione said with a laugh.

"I swear though, if Hugo asks me about his mother once more, I don't know what I'll do," Ron said as he slumped down in his seat.

"How do you feel about that?" Harry asked with a smile, "Never thought you and Luna would end up together."

She can't help but grin as she remembers the way he used to think that Luna was absolutely mental back at school. She did as well; after all there was no_ logic_ to any of her claims. But Luna was fiercely loyal, and she was a true friend to all of them.

"I-uh-well, it's a bit weird," Ron admitted slightly. "Considering how we just had our first date the other day."

Hermione hits him. Hard. "Why didn't you tell us that you went on a date with her?" She questioned. "And why not after you found about Hugo?"

He winces, and rightfully so, "It's a bit weird you know? Like I didn't tell you about the date because it was so new, and I didn't want to say anything until we had a bit more time together. But then all of a sudden you find out you're supposed to be with this person whom you've just started developing feelings for? Part of me wants to run for the hills."

She can understand that. She definitely understands that. But thankfully for her, she and Malfoy have already established that they want nothing, in a romantic capacity, to do with each other. So at least she didn't have that to worry about.

"So how did the date go?" Harry asked in amusement. Smug bastard.

"It was…nice?" Ron said, unsure. "I really liked it," he admitted in a low voice, and Hermione squeezed his arm encouraging him to continue. "I wanted to owl her later and ask her for a second date, but then well all of this happened…"

"And it scared you?" Hermione asked softly.

He nodded, "And I know if I do, I'd have to tell her about Hugo."

"You should tell her regardless, Mate," Harry gave his input. "He's her son too. Besides, you said you liked the date, so owl her back anyways. You obviously want to."

He nodded at that. "You're right. I do," he admitted, "I guess I just needed someone to give me a push." He stood up, and Hermione presumed he was going to go compose a letter to the future mother (or present, now?) of his child.

"He's still just as hopeless as he was back in school," Hermione shook her head as Harry bit back a laugh.

"Says the person who's solution to this is to claim that in this timeline that she will never, ever, end up with Draco Malfoy," Harry taunts her.

She scoffs, "Because it's true. Have you seen us? We're like water and oil."

"Right," Harry says sceptically.

She hears a child's laugh followed by a man's ring through the house, and she knows that it's Malfoy and Scorpius, even without being able to see the two of them. In the past few days, whenever he and Scorpius have been together, she's seen a paternal side to him that she'd never thought to be possible. Everything in his demeanour changed around the young boy, as a carefree side took over. He didn't need to show so much interest, yet somehow he settled into the role of a father naturally, and she was slightly envious.

"He's good with Scorpius," she admits, grudgingly. "I'll give him that much."

"He's a good guy," Harry states. "I clearly wouldn't have accepted the two of you in the future, if I didn't think so. He's changed a lot since school, Hermione. It wouldn't kill you to give him a chance."

"I've been perfectly decent to him!" she argued.

Harry have her a look, "Please, the two of you have been tolerant towards each other, and even that is pushing it."

Hermione grumbled slightly as she accepted his words. They had spoken over the past few days, but it was always awkward small talk, to in terms of Scorpius, instead of things of actual substance or relevance.

She sighed, "I can't help it, you know? Like you and Ginny already are so happy together, and even Ron is starting to having feelings for Luna. But Malfoy and I still barely see eye to eye."

"I know," he said, squeezing her hand gently. "Just don't push him completely out of the running just yet. I'm not saying you need to suddenly fall in love with him; that would be unrealistic of me to ask for you. But at least try and be his friend, for Scorpius' sake."

"I can do that," Hermione nodded.

* * *

><p>"Have you met with the patient yet?" Hermione asked Mary as she held her clipboard toward her body as they walked to the room in which she was waiting.<p>

"Not yet," Mary admitted. "It's just been a hectic few days here, you know? I mean I know I rarely get a break, but it's just been so much rushing around, trying to save as many people as possible."

She knew what her intern meant. During her own internship, she had worked under several other healers who had often had her running in circles trying to complete task which sometimes seemed impossible. At times it felt like they had unrealistic expectations of her, simply because of why she was and he role she had in the war. And it wasn't fair that they put her so much on a pedestal. But she never complained as she rose up to meet every challenge that had been placed on her.

As a mentor herself, she tried to be fair in her demands of her interns. But with that said, she had standards and she expected that they were met.

"Tell me what you got from the file," Hermione asked her intern as they paused outside the room.

"Patient's name is Pansy Parkinson; seems to have suffered memory distortion as she was hit by a pulse of magic. Believes she is currently a muggle, despite traditional magical upbringing

Hermione's eyes widened slightly as she recomposed herself upon hearing the name of her patient. She hadn't seen the former Slytherin since school. But despite their history, she was a professional who would not deny anyone treatment simply because of their past.

It seemed that she was destined to treat several former classmates in the span of only a few days.

Hermione gave her intern a nod as she opened the door.

Parkinson looked up at her without a faintest glance of recognition, "Are you here to release me?" she asked.

"Not without helping you regain your memory first," Hermione said as she walked over so she could face her patient.

"I thought there was no cure, other than just time?" Parkinson said, with a hint of surprise.

"Well I just need to run a few diagnostic tests on you before we can come to that conclusion," Hermione said. It was going to be confusing to explain everything to her, but she had no other choice.

She gave a nod to Mary, who began to ask her a series of questions to serve as a distraction while Hermione pulled out her wand as she cast a series of spells which would help her determine whether the damage was long term or not.

From what she could tell, there were no signs of physical damage from what she could tell initially. She also could tell that the memories were still in here mind.

She took a step back for a moment as she began to cast a few of the basic memory restoration spells. Hermione looked up to see Pansy still answering the questions without so much as an indication that it had worked and that her memories had come back.

So it clearly was going to be a bit more difficult than that.

If the memories had been addled when the blast had coursed through her, then perhaps using a similar (albeit a lot less powerful) type of magic would help her push the memories out of the place where they were hidden and back to where they belonged.

She tried another spell which she had picked up over the years, and as she waited to see if it had worked, Mary gave her a negative nod.

She was starting to get slightly worried at this point. If she didn't come up with something, she would have to send Parkinson home while she lulled over the case later and tried to come up with a situation. And Merlin knew she didn't exactly have that much free time on her hands.

There was something else she knew she could try; a spell that was still in the early stages of development. Casting it would be risky, seeing as she had yet to test it on a subject. But as far as she knew, there were no negative outcomes that could result from it not working; just that the memories would fail to be restored.

So she silently began to cast the spell, and waited. To her both her surprise and relief, the spell cast a while light around Parkinson, as it began to take root in her.

"Granger?" Parkinson asked, a bit surprised, "What am I doing here?"

"Your memories were displaced as a result of the earthquake," Hermione said. "I'll leave you with my intern, Mary, who will run a few follow up procedures on you to check that everything has been restored now."

"Thank you," Parkinson said in a soft tone before Hermione left. She settled for giving the raven-haired woman a nod as she walked out the door.

* * *

><p>Hermione stepped out into Diagon Alley as she took her much needed lunch break. She had flowed Harry a short while back to make sure that everything was still okay with the children, before taking some time off for herself.<p>

In her busy state, she had forgotten to pack some food, like most days, so she decided to take a short walk over to a new sandwich shop that had opened up a year back.

As she placed her order and obtained her food, she ate silently at one of the tables by the window as she watched the stream of people pass by with their busy lives, and often speculated about the people she saw. It was interesting every now and then to try and figure out things about other people's lives, just as they did to her when she was in public.

She wiped her mouth on a napkin as she left the little shop, walking back to the hospital where she would need to see a new wave of patients who all were dependent on treatment.

Hermione wasn't quite paying attention as she bumped straight into someone, causing them both to shake slightly at the contact. She began apologising profusely as she looked up to see who she had nearly caused to topple over.

"Hermione?" she heard a semi-familiar voice ask, as she saw Oliver Wood standing in front of her. She had seen the famous Quidditch player on a few occasions since he had left school and joined Puddlemere United to play professionally.

"Oliver?" she asked, "What are you doing back in England? I thought you were still on tour?"

"I was, but then the earthquake struck, and I wanted to check in with my family for a few days," he said solemnly. "So how are things with you?"

"Good; extremely busy, but good," she said as he gave her a smile, causing her heart to flutter slightly. She had always thought the older man was attractive, even during school.

"I'm glad," he said softly, "I'm running slightly late, but we should catch up one of these days."

"I'd like that," she admitted, before the Quidditch player turned, and walked into the crowd of busy people.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So no Hermione and Draco conversation this chapter, but it'll happen soon, I promise! As usual, thank you so much for the great response and feedback! I love hearing from you guys, and your thoughts. See you next week!


	7. Late Night Talks

**Chapter 7**

It was weird being a father, to say in the least. Draco supposed it wouldn't be so strange if he gradually had time to grow accustom to it, in the way a person typically became a parent. But having the sudden responsibility thrust onto him overnight had initially proved to be a challenge.

Scorpius was a wonderful child, who definitely had better manners than he ever had as a kid. He wasn't spoiled, nor did he demand that his needs always be met. He didn't constantly seek attention, and he was very thoughtful in his actions.

Draco supposed that it was Granger's genes in the child which had led to him being raised as such. He wondered how he had been in the future as a father, and shuddered at the thought that he was anything like his own. But if he had been, he supposed that he wouldn't have the apparent relationship with Scorpius that he never seemed to have with Lucius. And for that he was relieved; Merlin forbid he was anything like the man who raised him with the morals and values of a Death Eater prodigy.

Staying at the Potter home was also a strange experience. Sure, he got along great with his partner, and while they were decently acquaintances, bordering friends, it was different seeing him in a non-work related capacity, alongside Weasley and Granger. There were times he felt like he was intruding on the trio's friendship, and couldn't help but wonder if Ginny sometimes felt the same way as he did.

He sighed softly to himself as he thought about how his life seemingly had transformed into one of the most confusing affairs he had ever known. It was what he deserved for apparently getting involved with Granger; Merlin knows that she, Potter, and Weasley had a way of attracting trouble without even looking for it.

And while he taunted them in school for it, he was never jealous of it. Sure, he was jealous of the attention they received when they triumphed, and it hadn't helped that his own father would often use that as a reason to punish him for not being as successful.

"Daddy?" he heard a young child's voice call out. As he looked down, he saw Scorpius looking at him expectantly, as if waiting for a response to a question that he had failed to hear.

"Sorry, Scorpius, did you ask me something?" he asked, as the young boy scrambled up to sit beside him on the couch.

"I was asking where Mummy is," the boy said in a matter-of-factly tone. He nearly laughed at how much he sounded like a young, if not still current, Granger.

"She's at work," Draco informed the child, "She wanted to stay here with you, but she had no choice."

He nodded understandingly, "Mummy usually worked a lot, before…" he said, voice trailing off slightly, causing Draco to frown. He hated thinking about what his son went through, so he wrapped an arm around the child to comfort him. Scorpius leaned into and hugged Draco, causing him to feel a bit surprised at the action. But he used the action to rub Scorpius' arm gently, without pulling away from the contact.

"I'va another question for you, daddy," Scorpius stated, looking up at him with his wide eyes. "Why are you and Mummy being weird?"

Draco frowned, "What do you mean?"

"You and Mummy are always touching," Scorpius said, making a weird face, "It's icky. But you say it's because you love her sooooooo much. And you're always kissing, and doing other Mommy-Daddy stuff. But you and Mummy are being weird."

Draco coughed at that. He figured that he and Granger had obviously cared for each other in the future, but he had to say, hearing about it was on a whole other level of strange. It hadn't crossed either his or Granger's mind that it could possibly be a strange sight for their son not to see his parents on the intimate level they were during his timeline.

"I-uh-well, your mother and I aren't together in this time," he said, trying to come up with an explanation.

"Why not?" Scorpius frowned. "You love Mummy! And Mummy loves you!"

"You see, if your mother and I got together in the future, it was probably not for a while. And I'm not sure if your mother and I will get together in this timeline, but if it's supposed to happen it will," he added the last part as he saw Scorpius began to get distressed at the idea that he and Granger weren't together.

"So why can't you just be together now?" Scorpius asked, confusion flitting across his face. He had such an innocent look about him, as if what he was asking was the simplest thing on the planet.

"It doesn't always work like that, Scorpius," Draco tried to explain. "I don't feel that way for her."

He could see his son look even more upset at that. While his own parents were never all that emotional in their love for each other, Draco knew that they had grown to care for each other, arranged marriage or not. But if he had grown up with two parents, who apparently cared for each other a great deal, as Scorpius claimed, he could see why it could be slightly concerning for the young boy.

"But it doesn't mean that something might not happen in the future," Draco said hurriedly. "Who knows, maybe you being here will help bring us together," he said weakly. He knew that he probably shouldn't have said that, seeing that it would most likely be giving the young boy false hope for something that might not even happen. But he couldn't bring himself to cause the child any more grief; not after everything he had already gone through in his own time.

"You mean that I can help you and Mommy get together?" Scorpius asked, a wide smile appearing on his face. "Daddy, we have so much we have to do!"

Draco partially wanted to burst into laughter at the ecstatic look on Scorpius' face, but he also wanted to hex himself for giving the young boy so much hope into a situation that wasn't likely to come true.

"How about we start it a bit later, Scorpius?" he asked the boy, "That way you and I can spend some time together then we can worry about your mother and I."

Scorpius nodded solemnly, "So will you play with me Daddy?"

Draco laughed, "How about you go hide, and I find you?"

The young boy shrieked with joy as he stood up and ran out of the room, leaving Draco shaking his head in amusement at the child's antics.

* * *

><p>When Hermione got home from her shift, she could all but stop herself from dropping on the couch and just resting her feet, so that was what she did.<p>

She was exhausted. It had been one of her longer shifts, what with the number of patients and all. Thankfully for her, it seemed that the number of earthquake related accidents seemed to coming to a very slow halt.

While there were very few life threatening procedures she had to do today, there were still a good amount of difficult cases which definitely had a way of keeping her on her toes, trying out strange combinations of spells which she probably never thought she would need until all of five seconds ago.

"Long day?" she heard a voice ask from the doorway. She looked up to see Malfoy standing there, looking sympathetic toward her plight as he waved his wand to summon her a plate of food, and after using a quick re-heating spell, he handed it to her. As she looked at him questioningly, he shrugged and said, "Ginny made extra food for you, and I figured you were probably too tired to get it yourself, nor would you want to use a spell to grab it."

He was dressed far more casually than she probably had ever seen him, wearing a pair of muggle trousers and a knit jumper. She knew that he had changed since the war, but it was little things like this which really sold it to her that he had done so, regardless of the clothes probably belonging to Harry; seeing that Malfoy very easily could have transfigured them to robes.

She would also be lying if she said she didn't think that he looked attractive in the robes. But it wasn't as if she had ever denied his good-looks, just that in the past his personality often trumped over such details.

She smiled at that, "Thanks, I'm starving," she replied, "And yeah, it's been an extremely long day. Part of me just wants to stay on this couch for several long hours before getting back up and going to bed."

He sat beside her, waiting for her to fill in the gaps of what had happened, so she continued, "There were just so many people, you know? It was hard seeing how the earthquake caused so much damage and trauma to everyone, one way or another. And I don't blame the kids for coming back, because clearly whatever they endured was far worse than what we just went through. But I guess it just brought back all the horrors of the war, and the things I saw, which is strange, because that was what made me want to go into healing to begin with," she said with a sigh, as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, before starting to eat the food Malfoy had handed her.

He nodded, "I know what you mean. I was looking over damage reports earlier, and while most of it is easy to repair with magic, there's some major damage out there that won't be as easy to fix."

She looked down, before asking, "How was Scorpius today?" she asked, knowing the young boy was probably fast asleep in a guest room, and while she planned on checking in on him before going to bed herself, she was curious.

Malfoy smiled, "Fantastic. I think he's slowly coming to terms with what happened, you know? And he has moments where he's just so full of life and energy. It's just so strange, and amazing, to think that he's _mine_, you know?"

She nodded, "I do. I have a shorter day tomorrow, and I large part of me was relieved that I could spend the day with him."

He was quiet for a few moments, "He would like that; he missed you quite a bit today while you were gone. I don't think he completely understands that coming here means that the two of us aren't together, especially since Harry and Ginny are still married."

"He's young. He's at an age where he still is going to have trouble with relationships and making connections. It's something that comes with maturity," she explained softly, without meeting his eyes.

"I told him as gently as I could. I don't think he completely understood," he said, combing his fingers through his hair as he leaned back against the couch. "I think it's hard for him to comprehend it because apparently we care for each other quite a bit in the future."

Hermione looked down, refusing to meet his eyes as a tinge of pink gracing her face, and focused on eating to avoid having to say anything in response just quite yet. She hadn't been expecting him to be quite blunt about it, seeing how the pair of them had all but avoided the subject for the last few days. Despite Harry attempting to prompt her and Malfoy to talk about it properly, other both decide they were just going to pretend that it meant nothing.

Because it really didn't. A lot of things were going to change now that the children had come back. Her relationship with Malfoy was probably one of them.

"There was also something else I wanted to talk to you about," Malfoy said, shaking her out of her thoughts. "My mother is coming back to England. I sent her a general letter explaining the damage, in as little words as possible, to the Manor and she decided it would be best to come home and assess the situation."

Hermione looked up at him, "Oh? So what are you going to tell her about, well, everything?" She asked, curious how he could possibly explain what was happening to his mother without telling her the entire story. She didn't know much about his parents personally.

Lucius Malfoy had been sentenced to life in Azkaban after the end of the war, and due to fact that Narcissa wasn't a Death Eater, and Harry's testimony of her actions in aiding him by standing up against Voldemort, had given her a generous sentence of only a year in Azkaban, and ten years on parole.

She hadn't kept up on other details about Malfoy's mother other than that, and to be honest, she hadn't cared much to bother.

"I feel like I have to," Malfoy said carefully. "She's going to find out eventually, and if she finds out that I kept a grandchild from her, she's going to be furious."

"Will she care about Scorpius' heritage?" Hermione asked, attempting to be delicate with her wording of the sensitive topic. While Malfoy hadn't quite said anything to her recently about the matter, she had no idea what his stance on the issue was.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "She was raised to believe in blood purity, but she was never as strict in instilling it in me as my father was. She's accepted that the world is a different place now, and those views are no longer acceptable, but I don't know if she'll be able to accept that Scorpius is a half-blood."

Hermione was about to retort angrily, when he sensed it and cut her off.

"It doesn't matter to me," he told her strongly. "Scorpius is my son, despite not being from our time, he's mine. I refuse to let the way I was raised affect the way I see him. If it comes to him staying with us permanently, then I will make him the heir to my estate and treat him as if he was here in a more conventional sense. I don't care what my mother thinks, Granger. If she doesn't want to accept him, then that's her problem."

Her eyes softened at the way he spoke with such reverence about Scorpius. She knew how he felt; she didn't think it was possible to care for someone she hadn't even known a week ago, yet she loved the child as he did.

"I hope you know that I don't believe in any of it anymore, Granger," he said, meeting her eyes. "I don't care about blood purity, or status and wealth. None of that make a person. They are determined by their values and merits, and not who their family was."

"It's nice to see that you've changed your perspective," she said honestly, smiling at him softly.

"It's quite difficult to believe what you've been taught when a muggleborn shows up, fully cultured and is the most intelligent witch in the entire school. It goes against everything you've learnt, and has a way of changing your views," Malfoy said, his eyes burning into hers intensely.

She felt her cheeks tinge again, and has to force herself to break eye contact with him. Malfoy has always had a way of affecting her, albeit negatively at first, but she can't help but feel a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"So are you going to tell your parents?" he asks, changing the conversation. And just like that, the spell is broken.

She was still a bit dazed when she answered, "What? Oh. I'm not quite sure, to be honest. My parents and I always had a slightly difficult relationship," she said, trailing off. She doesn't know if she should keep talking; the two of them aren't quite close. But he looks at her expectantly and she finds herself saying, "They were proud of me being a witch, but they never quite understood what it meant. I didn't tell them about the build up to the war, and when it hit, I obliviated them so they would leave the country. I tracked them down after and reversed the spell, and while they attempted to understand my reasons, it's never quite been the same."

He looks sympathetic at that and she is grateful that he hasn't said anything about it that might make her regret opening up to him.

"They'll come around eventually," he said softly. "Parents that care about their children anywhere near as much as yours do about you, can never permanently stay away from their children."

"How do you know they care about me?" she asked, slightly confused.

"When we were in second year, I saw them at Flourish and Blotts with you. I had never seen prouder parents who cared as much as they did for their own child as yours did. I think it was what set me off that day and sent me to go terrorize you," he admitted slightly.

She smiled at him, "I'm glad you grew up, Malfoy. You're actually a half decent person now," she teased at the end.

He looked affronted, "I'm not going to respond to that," he said, causing her to burst into laughter.

She patted his shoulder, "There, there," she said, finding her fingers lingering over his body ever so slightly.

Just then, the clock chimed twelve times, causing her eyes to widen at the time. "We should probably get to bed," she said, a bit regretfully.

He nodded as he helped her off the couch. She waved her wand and sent the dishes to the sink, as they climbed up the stairs to their rooms.

Once she had undergone her typical night routine, she laid down on the bed, and felt herself unable to sleep as the events of the day played over and over in her head like a broken record.


	8. Malfoy Manor

**Chapter 8**

She didn't even know why she was nervous. It wasn't as if she was going to meet her boyfriend's parents for real. But that was exactly what it felt like at the moment, and if Hermione was being completely honest with herself, then she would admit that she had no idea how to handle the situation; again.

It seemed that lately Hermione felt like she didn't know how to handle a lot of the situations, and this was coming from the person who fought along her best friend, constantly endangering her own life through risky scenarios. But despite it all, she always had a plan; even if they were bad ones and ones that often failed.

But recently it seemed as if her life was just completely falling into pieces in front of her very eyes, and she was barely twenty-one. Hell, she still had two months until then, so she refused to accept it until that point.

Maybe it was growing up that caused her to lose perspective, or maybe it was growing up that caused her to realise just how messed up her life really was when she wasn't pretending that everything was perfect all the time. Because if she was completely honest, she would admit that she was very, very far from perfect despite her best attempts to strive for the best grades and her attempts to be the best possible person she could. Because underneath it all, she really was a mess.

It wasn't as if she and Malfoy were even together anyways. Just because some future version of herself had ended up with him didn't mean it would come to pass. She was sure in some alternative timeline she was probably still with Ron, and in another she was with Harry. Hell, in another universe she could probably be with Neville, and that would be okay, because that was how that reality came to play out. But in this one, she wasn't with anyone. And she refused to try and pretend to care for someone because she found out some information that was supposed to magically make things roll a certain way.

She wondered how much of the recent time was similar to that alternate timeline. When exactly did the two diverge? Did something happen differently prior to the children coming back that didn't in the alternate future? Hermione knew she probably would never have the answers to those questions, but she would be lying if she said it wasn't very interesting to her.

So then why was she so nervous to meet Narcissa Malfoy? She didn't love the older woman's son, nor did she particularly care what the blonde thought of her. She didn't want her blessings to be with Malfoy, nor did she care that the woman could possibly still hate her for her blood type.

So then why was she sitting anxiously in her chair, staring at the clock until four o'clock, when she would go meet the woman in question?

It was probably the implications of it all. Telling his mother would somehow make the entire situation far more real than it already was, and Hermione wasn't quite sure how to deal with it all. She still felt guilty that she had barely considered telling her own parents about recent developments, and if she were adding that to the list of things she should be honest about, she would admit that it was the furthest thing on her mind at the moment.

It was probably also her own fault that her relationship with her parents was currently the way it was. While the memory modification had been done with good intentions, it had caused a strain on their ties. Despite her parents understanding (after much deliberation and explanations) why she had done what she had done, it had been hard for her to talk to them after. They wanted to pull her into the muggle world and send her off to university so she could take on a 'real' career. They also believed that the world she lived in was dangerous, and that it probably would get her killed one day. And while she loved them for caring about her and wanting her to be safe, giving it up wasn't an option. Magic was a part of her; just as much as her muggle side was. She couldn't just give it up for the fear that something could happen to her.

So how was she supposed to tell them that she was going off to fight another war, with an enemy she didn't even know, because her future child came to warn her? She could picture how well the conversation would go.

"Stop worrying about it," she heard a voice call out. Hermione looked up in surprise to see Malfoy staring at her in amusement. He had been waiting at the table with her, calmly drinking earl grey tea as the minutes until they had to go meet his mother ticked by.

"How are you not worried about this?" she asked in confusion. "It's not like this is an everyday thing that we go tell your mother that her grandchild came back from the future. She probably won't even believe it anyways. **_I_** don't even believe it half the time. It's just so surreal."

"I know," he admitted, "But despite anything she might say, Scorpius is my son and I refuse to let her opinions get in the way. I'm giving her a chance to accept it, and if she does, then that means she will have some contact with her grandchild. If not, then it's her problem."

She smiled faintly at that, "Even if it means that Scorpius and/or you might lose all claim to the Malfoy fortune?" she asked. She wasn't quite sure Narcissa Malfoy had the power to do so, but she knew enough about the old blood families to know what kind of behaviour she might need to expect.

"She doesn't control the fortune. She has whatever Black fortune was left to her, but the Malfoy fortune is mine. I am the heir regardless of what may or may not happen. With my father out of the picture, everything is in my name. But regardless, even if it weren't I wouldn't denounce Scorpius for his blood or history, or should I say future. As my first child, he is my heir, but everything will be divided equally between him and any other children I may have. The only thing my mother can control is what role she is going to play in Scorpius' life."

"You make it sound so easy," she said with a slight huff.

"Because it's that simple," Malfoy said with a shrug.

She looked up and saw the clock standing over the dining table at ten to four, "We should go. I don't want to be late."

He nodded, extending his arm out to her. When she looked at him in surprise he said, "Only Malfoy's may apparate directly onto the property. It's one of the safety measures we have on the house. We temporarily disabled it when He was staying with us, but since then I re-placed that, as well as several other spells."

He could see she was still wary about going over to his place. And why shouldn't she be. The last time she went over hadn't exactly been the most pleasant of times.

"We've renovated the entire place," he said, after a few moments, "I burned that entire wing to the ground and rebuilt it. I didn't want any reminders of what life had been like when He was there. I know it was especially terrible for you, and if you aren't comfortable going, I can go talk to her myself. I won't blame you for wanting to stay away from that place."

She shook her head, "You live there, and after all of this, if we get to keep Scorpius, it would make sense that he would be living there, at least part time. I'm going to have to get used to it eventually, and there's no better time than the future to do so."

He nodded slightly as she slipped her arm through his. She felt her arm twinge at the place she was touching him, but shook it off. It was nothing more than her mind playing tricks on her. It was the simple combination of her not being in a relationship conjoined with the notion that she _could_ be in one with the man who's arm she was holding, and nothing more.

She felt the sensation of apparition, and before she knew it, she was on the Malfoy property.

It was definitely a lot brighter than the last time she had been over. The gardens were well maintained, and the peacocks were a lot more flamboyant than they were before. There were several colourful flowers decorating the scene, and she couldn't help but stare amazedly at the sight. Even the once dark house was a glistening white colour.

She stood outside the door, taking in everything when Malfoy gently nudged her from her thoughts, "Ready to go in and face it all?"

She nodded bleakly, "I suppose so," she said, as he entered the Manor. She followed him in, where an elf greeted them.

"Master Draco, Mistress Malfoy is waiting in the Tea Room," the elf said as Malfoy nodded.

"Thank you, Druin," he said as placed his hand on the small of her back.

Part of her wanted to protest the elves. The fourth year in her wanted to go on a huge rant about it. Hell, even the 22 year old in her wanted to talk to him about it. But it was not the time or place for such matters. She supposed she could always bring it up in the future, but she had long since learned to pick her battles.

She looked around the house as they walked through it. There weren't family portraits scattering the walls like there used to be in Grimmauld Place, but more scenery paintings. There were fancy statues scattered around strategically, as well as vases, and other old, expensive looking items. She supposed one of the perks of being as rich as he was would be being able to afford such extravagances.

While she had a fascination of art, she rarely saw it up close, except for when she was in a museum. It was odd to see how Malfoy walked by it all, as if he were used to such sights.

Seeing Malfoy Manor as a visitor, and not as a hostage, was definitely a different experience. She decided in that moment, that whenever she would be bringing over Scorpius for his stay with his father, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

After all, it appeared to be an entirely different place than that which she had been tortured in.

Not that she blamed Malfoy for his actions. She knew very well that if he tried to oppose his aunt, that she would be deranged enough to kill him on the spot. After all, Bellatrix had killed her own niece and cousin, what was stopping her from killing her nephew?

As Malfoy opened the door to what she presumed to be the Tea Room, she took in a deep breath.

Mrs. Malfoy was sitting poised at one of the chairs which looked to be straight out of a Victorian catalogue. She was sipping a cup of tea from a cup which would be equivalent to at least four months of her salary, which was rather well off compared to others.

"Draco," she said calmly, "I did not know we were expecting…company. I was under the impression that it would just be the two of us here this evening."

Malfoy didn't look fazed, "The two of us have something we need to discuss with you of a rather private nature. I figured since you probably would find out one way or another, it would be best for me to properly explain the situation."

Narcissa did not look pleased, "Really, Draco? I expected much better than this from you. If you were having pre-marital relations, I would have hoped that you would have the sense to take the necessary precautions so that something like this did not happen. I thought I raised you better than that."

Hermione's face burned at her assumption. She could see how the elder woman had come to that conclusion with what they were saying, however it was far from the case, kind of.

Malfoy scowled, "She's not pregnant," he said flatly, "Well at least not yet-uh, I'm not quite sure how to explain that."

Narcissa pursed her lips, "Perhaps the two of you better sit down and explain the situation properly then," she said, giving Hermione a dirty look.

And so they did. Hermione sat silently as Malfoy explained the situation as delicately as he could, only throwing in the occasional input. However this was his mother, and he would know how to properly explain without escalating the situation any further.

After all of that, Narcissa spoke again, "I see; and I suppose that you personally verified that this child is actually yours, and not some sort of monetary scheme that Miss Granger is playing?"

Malfoy gave his mother an annoyed look, "Of course I did. I was there when the spell was cast and you can't falsify those kinds of results. The child basically looks like a carbon copy of myself, and I can't believe that you would even ask that sort of question."

"I mean no disrespect, Draco. But you have to see it from my perspective," She explained calmly, without even looking slightly fazed.

"I don't see how you can ask that sort of question without meaning disrespect, Mother," Malfoy said in an annoyed tone, "Besides, I was the one who found the children. If anything, the question should be if I'm trying to pull one over on her."

"I see," she said again, before falling silent.

"Is that all you have to say?" he asked her. Hermione bit her lip to stop herself from saying something. The situation wasn't exactly ideal, but the two of them were being treated as if they did something wrong when that was far from the case.

"What do you want me to say?" Mrs. Malfoy asked, "That I'm happy about all of this? Because I'm not. I might have accepted that the views I once held won't stand in this current society. But that doesn't mean that I don't still believe in purity. Do you want me to say I'm happy that apparently I have a grandchild which means that yet another catastrophic thing is about to happen and that my son is caught in the cross hairs? Because I'm not. I had hoped that you would honour the marital agreement that you had with Astoria Greengrass, but I see that is not going to pass."

"First of all, I refuse to have an arranged marriage. Both Astoria and I have agree that neither of us wanted that. I will marry for love, and love alone. I won't marry someone just because I'm supposed to, even if it's not Granger. After you and father, can you really blame me? It's not like you both had the picture perfect marriage," Malfoy asked, before his mother cut him off.

"Do not speak of your father or I like that. The two of us might not have had the best marriage, but we were happy," she defended. "According to your plan, there's a chance Scorpius is returned to the future. If you and Miss. Granger do not end up together, what do you think will happen to that child? Do you want me to put in effort and care for someone that will cease to exist?"

Hermione paled. She had considered many things, yet that was not one of them.

"Despite what may or may not happen, I would have thought family meant more to you than that," Malfoy said, standing up, "Granger, let's leave. We have better things to do with our time. Mother, if you want a relationship with Scorpius, or even I at this point, you will come to terms with what is happening. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy solitude," he said, as he led Hermione out of the room.

He let go of her after they apparated back to Grimmauld place. He started to pull away to head out, but she grabbed his arm.

"I know the two of us aren't close, but I'm here for you if you need to talk," she said softly. "That couldn't have been easy to endure, and I know that if that had just happened with my own parents that I wouldn't be okay."

He looked like he was deliberating something, before he sighed and said, "I just expected more from her. I know she still has her views on all of that, but I had hoped that she would at least care that she has a grandson. I'm disappointed to be proved wrong."

She nodded, "Honestly, I hoped that too. It would have been nice for Scorpius to have at least one grandparent. But even if it doesn't work out with her, I want you to know that you still have a family here, with Scorpius, me, Harry, Ron, and Ginny. You're not alone."

He cracked a smile at that, "Who would have guessed that the Golden Trio willingly accepts me with open arms and my own family doesn't? I think the world has gone and cracked. Especially you, Granger. I must say it's quite a surprise."

She laughed, "Call me Hermione," she said, before hesitating, "Or not. I mean it doesn't quite matter all that much," she admitted, as she looked down.

"Now I know something must be wrong," he teased, causing her to smile. "But then I suppose it's only fair that you call me by my first name too, Hermione."

She grinned, feeling oddly at ease with the man in front of her. She knew what he meant about it being a weird sensation. A week ago she barely gave the blond a second thought, yet now they were kind of friends.

Their conversation was interrupted by an owl making sounds from the window. She walked over and opened the pane, and as she received the letter she frowned. It had the official St. Mungos logo on it; meaning she was receiving a case at home, something which rarely happened.

She opened the letter, and as she scanned the contents, a hand went to cover her mouth in shock.

"Is everything okay?" he asked her, walking to where she was standing.

"Ernie MacMillan was found on the street, unconsciously and slightly tortured. He is suffering from memory modification, and thinks he's a muggle," she said, processing the information.

"Oh?" he said, not understanding the full relevance.

"The same thing happened to Pansy Parkinson less than a few days ago. If it were just one case, I would say it's bad, but no big deal. But to have two cases so similar in the span of such a short time? It can't be a coincidence. Whatever it as that the children were sent back to stop, I think it's starting, Draco," she said lowly.

"We need to see the children's memories," Draco said grimly. "We can't wait any longer."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Ahh they're calling each other by their first names! I'm so excited and happy with how this story is progressing so far. I also would like to thank you all for the positive feedback, especially when it's anxiously worrying about my (so far mild) cliff hangers. See you next week!


	9. Obtaining the Impossible

**Chapter 9**

Hermione sat at the table facing Harry, Ron, and Draco.

It had been a few hours since she had received the letter that Ernie was found, and in that time it seemed that somehow their wold had gotten all that more complicated.

As soon as she got word, she had instructed Draco to find Harry and Ron and brief them on all that had happened while she went to St. Mungo's to deal with what had happened and hopefully cure Ernie from his memory loss.

She hadn't been able to tell any of the other Healers at work that there was a connection without explaining everything to them, and that was not something she was able to do. So if any of them suspected a connection between the two cases, none of them said anything on the matter.

Her intern had the day off, so thankfully Mary would not be there either. She was rather smart, and Hermione had no doubt that she would find it abnormal.

When she had arrived in Ernie's room, he had been just as clueless as Parkinson about his heritage, which was odd for the both of them, as neither had much muggle knowledge, yet all of a sudden they seemed to be fairly knowledgeable on the matter, given the circumstances. So whomever had tampered with their memories had not only removed knowledge of their magic, but planted just enough memories in their brain for them to perceive themselves as muggles.

Normally, in a memory modification case, she would start off with a similar procedure as she did with Parkinson, testing the basic cases before moving on to more complicated spells. However, given her inkling about the connection, she went straight for the spells that she knew worked, and within seconds Ernie's memory had returned.

It was the one good thing about knowing there was a connection; that she already knew how to treat them.

Except despite them remembering who they were, neither of them had any knowledge of how they ended up losing their memories in the first place. It seemed that those memories were far harder to find, if even possible to do so. She guessed that whoever had done this had taken care to ensure that neither of her patients would remember that fact.

So she had turned over care of Ernie to another on call Healer to help deal with the damage that had been done to him not pertaining to the major injuries which had already been healed or the memory loss that she had just restored.

She had asked him questions about it; to verify that he had his memory restored properly. Unlike Pansy Parkinson's memory loss, he remembered the events of the earthquake and what happened up to several days later.

Meaning his accident had happened after Pansy's, and that they were two separate incidents. It was one thing if she could say they happened at the same time, so that it was one instance and that it wasn't likely to occur again. But the sheer fact that within a week two patients turned up with similar conditions meant that it was highly probably that this was only the beginning, and that more patients were likely to turn up soon.

She told a few Aurors that had been instructed to surveillance the hospital to watch over Ernie's room. The last thing she needed was for the perpetrator to come back and finish him off. It was unlikely such a thing would occur, given that they had had the chance to do so already and had chosen not to take it. But it would be unwise of her not to take precautions when it came to a patient's health and safety. They had already lost enough people in the earthquake's aftermath; they didn't need to lose anymore.

Now she was back at home sitting across from her friends and Draco as she finished explaining what had happened, from a medical stand point.

"So what, now we need to sift through eighteen combined years' worth of memories?" Ron asked incredulously. "Do you have any idea just how long that would take?"

Harry nodded, "I mean don't get me wrong, Hermione. I know looking through their memories might be one of the only ways to truly find out what happened. But you have to admit it sounds a little tedious, doesn't it?"

"We could always divide up the children's memories and each take one, then swap out with the remaining person whenever we get tired," Draco suggested, trying to help.

She closed her eyes, knowing fully well what they were saying was right.

"I would have thought of that!" she said frustrated, "Future me, I mean. I wouldn't have just sent them back here with no way of knowing what happened. I would have already pulled out my memories and sent those back instead, or I would have written a note or something!"

Harry placed an arm on her, "From the version the kids told us, it didn't seem like you had that much time, Hermione. Otherwise I know you definitely would have done something."

She sighed, placing her head in her hands.

"If only we knew which memories to look at," Ron grumbled.

But as he said so, an idea came to her mind, "Ron, you're a genius!" she exclaimed, eyes widening.

"I am?" he asked in confusion. Draco and Harry were no closer to understanding either.

"You know how my work is focused on memories?" she asked all of them. "There's something I've been working on over the past few months, but it's still in very early stages. It's a way which allows you to 'mark' or 'flag' certain memories in your mind for later. Like if you read something important in a book, instead of trying to figure out what you read later, or searching your mind for that exact memory, you would have that memory already bookmarked for later, so you know what you need. I haven't been able to succeed yet, however."

"So how is that supposed to help _us_?" Harry asked in confusion, but Draco seemed to start to make the connection.

"_I_ haven't succeeded," Hermione said. "That doesn't mean that I might not have succeeded in the future in doing so. If I did, the memories in the children's minds might have successfully been marked for us to go extract."

"That's brilliant," Draco said, giving her a slight smile. She noticed Ron watching the interaction closely between the two of them, but he didn't say anything. "How would you know if it worked?"

"I would have to use Occlumency on their minds to look and see, but looking through a mind can be like being in a dark space with dozen of memories flowing around. You just have to look for certain markers that point out ones. Personally, I've been playing the idea of using a red book mark as an overlay of those memories like I would use in a book. Of course, this is all hypothetical at this stage, and it's also possible that in the future I use something else entirely. But the only way I would know is to look in their minds"

"I'll go get the boys," Ron said as he stood and left the room.

"How are you holding up?" Harry asked as he turned to her. 'It's been a stressful few days, and I wanted to make sure you were okay; getting enough sleep, eating properly, and the sort. I heard about your visit to Malfoy's place. That couldn't have been easy either."

She smiled at her friend, "I've been doing my best with everything," she said. "And it was nothing I didn't expect. I don't know how I would have reacted if my child came to visit me and told me that a child came back from the future either."

"You would want to meet the child and ask them a bunch of questions about the future," Harry said, giving her a knowing smile. "Then you would insist on spoiling the kid rotten and making sure they are healthy, reading books, and flossing their teeth properly. So basically everything you've just done with Scorpius and the boys."

She laughed lightly at that, "I suppose I probably would, wouldn't I?"

"Yes," Draco and Harry said together.

She shook her head in amusement at the both of them, but didn't say anything in response. She looked up when she heard three little voices sound louder as they made their way closer to the room. As the three boys and Ron piled into the kitchen as sat down; Scorpius insisting on her lap, Harry began to explain lightly that Hermione would need to look through their minds. He tried his best not to mention the children's past to keep them from getting upset about it, but she noticed that Scorpius instinctively snuggled closer to her.

She protectively wrapped his arm around her son, as Draco placed a hand on Scorpius' shoulder.

"I'll start with James," Hermione said softly. "I promise it won't hurt. Just relax, okay?"

James nodded, and Harry comfortingly brought his son close to his body. She focused her attention and delved into the boy's mind.

She was met with darkness around her body, as memories swirled around her. She caught fragments of each memory. She watched for any indication of some sort of mark of flag, but began to feel discouraged as she saw none. Maybe future her hadn't been successful after all…

That was until see saw the first one. The memory was glowing slightly, as if it had been highlighted. She opened the vial she had in her hands and used her wand to bring the memory into the vial. As several more passed by her similarly she did the same thing.

Finally, when she had collected all the memories, she exited James' mind.

"So?" Ron asked her when she came to again.

She smiled as she held the vial in front of her. "I did it! I got the memories!" she said excitedly. It was really astonishing for her to know that she succeeded. Like every other magical aspect in her life, it was a constant source of amazement when she accomplished anything which she didn't think to be possible.

"Of course you did," Harry said with a grin. "If anyone would be able to accomplish something impossible, it would be you, Hermione."

"You're absolutely brilliant," Draco said with awe, causing Scorpius to giggle against her body. She felt herself grow red slightly at the compliment. It was probably due to the fact that she wasn't used to compliments from him as much as she was from Ron or Harry, and it probably had nothing to do with the way he was looking at her with admiration.

"Thanks," she said softly, as her eyes met his warm silver ones.

"Mommy's brilliant!" Scorpius giggled again as he hugged her tightly. She felt her heart soar at the contact and cuddled her son into him.

It was still a weird feeling to be a mother; she didn't deny that. She had no idea how to be a parent to a child that wasn't quite _hers_. But at times like these, she also wouldn't deny that she didn't enjoy it or the happiness she felt as a result of it.

The others around her laughed as she smiled at her child's words.

"Thanks, Love," she said with as she pressed a kiss against his forehead.

"Shall we do Hugo next? Ron asked, causing his own child to squirm slightly.

"I promise it will be fine, Hugo," Hermione said. "James, what did you think?"

"It was a little strange at first, but it didn't hurt, I swear," James told his cousin.

Hugo nodded nervously and Ron held his hand in his. As Hugo began to relax, Ron gave her a nod and she entered the redheaded child's mind. It didn't take as long, since she already knew what she was looking for, so she quickly gathered up the memories and exited to not prolong her visit.

Once she was back in her seat, she placed the second vial down on the table.

"Scorpius, baby, I need you to relax for me," she murmured to her son. "I need to look inside your mind okay?"

Her son looked up at her as he placed his tiny hand on her face, "Okay, Mommy," he said with a smile.

She smiled back as she noticed Draco grinning at the sight, which didn't fade as he caught her eye.

She focused her mind for the third time, as she entered her son's mind to collect memories.

Hermione had intended to be in and out, just as she had done for the other two children, she really did. But as the memories flew by her, she felt herself getting slightly lost in a few of them.

_"Happy Anniversary, Granger,_" she watched Draco say as he scooped memory her up in his arms.

She looked older, but not by much. She saw Scorpius beside her, happily clapping in his high chair as he used his fingers to eat the crackers that had been placed before him.

_"It's Malfoy,_" Memory her said, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Draco pulled her in closer as he moved a strand of hair out of her face, placing a deep kiss against her lips.

_"How could I forget?" _he teased. _"I'm reminded every night of just how **wonderful**_ _of a wife I have," _He said, voice getting husky at the end of it.

Memory her slapped him lightly on the chest, _"Not in front of Scorpius! You don't him to hear anything he might remember in the future! Do you want to scar your son?"_

_"It's not like he'll remember too much from this age anyways. He might understand us, be he doesn't get the context of what we're saying," _Draco said gently, as his hands began to roam over her body.

Hermione huffed, causing Draco to laugh deeply before pulling her in for another kiss.

_"I love you so much," _she heard her future self say contently as she rested her head against his chest.

She watched in amazement as she saw herself so happily settled into this family life in front of her. It couldn't be more than four or five years from now, and while she was similar in a lot of ways to who she was now, she seemed at home as she made her way through the kitchen, cleaning up slightly as she wiped Scorpius' face.

_"I think he's ready for a nap,_" Hermione murmured to her husband.

_"Maybe after you put him down, the two of us could take a _nap_ as well,"_ her husband said suggestively, causing her to laugh.

_"Yet somehow I doubt sleeping is the furthest thing on your mind,_" she said as Hermione watched her eye up her husband.

_"You know me so well_."

She felt the memory fade as Scorpius started to drift off to sleep. Deciding against looking at any other memories of a life she wouldn't ever have, she proceeded to collect the memories in a similar manner as before, before exiting her son's mind.

When she returned, she didn't look at Draco. Not because she was mad at him or anything, but because it was just so _strange_ to have seen herself acting so domestic with him, even if it was a rather minor memory.

She placed the third vial on the table as she nodded to the room, "It's done."

"How are we going to view them?" Draco asked the room, not noting the change in her behaviour towards him.

She knew logically that she wouldn't be able to treat him differently. If they were going to view the children's memories, it was likely that there would be more scenes of the such, and she would just need to deal with it.

"McGonagall gave me Dumbledore's pensieve after the war. I mentioned wanting on to store memories that I didn't want to recall as vividly and she said that Dumbledore would have wanted me to have it," Harry said softly. "It's upstairs if you guys want to go use it."

Hermione stared at her friend in shock. She knew he had nightmares from the war; they all did. But she had no idea that he had decided to get a pensieve. Clearly neither did Ron from his expression.

"I'm going to ask Ginny to watch the kids," Ron said standing up. He left the room while she noted Harry had been watching her as Draco's attention turned to Scorpius, who seemed eager at the moment to go sit with his father.

When Ron returned, Harry guided the three of them to the attic. She was walking closely by her friend as Ron and Draco trailed behind the two of them in silence.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked her in a low voice so the others didn't hear.

"I just saw a memory of Scorpius' when I was in his mind, and I wasn't quite prepared," she admitted. "It's one thing to know you married someone in a future. It's another thing to see yourself married to them, and acting like a couple. I guess I just think to expect such a thing. I don't even know why I'm surprised though."

Harry placed an arm around her as they climbed the stairs, "It's a strange situation all around, Hermione, and nothing is going to prepare you for it. But we're in this together, and I promise it will eventually stop being so weird."

She smiled at him, "Thanks," she said silently, as they opened the door to the attic.

The pensieve was standing in the middle of the same attic that once held a Quidditch pitch. As the four of them stood in front of the structure, Hermione emptied the three vials into the opening. She watched as they swirled around inside the pot.

"Are you ready?" she asked them.

They nodded, as slowly they all entered the pensieve, unprepared to face the future that could have been.


	10. Memories, Pt I

**A/N:** To make this clear as to who is speaking (Memory or real), I will italicize anything memory characters are saying while our timeline characters are left as normal font.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

She was met with darkness as she saw the swirls of the memories sort themselves out in front of her. Before she knew it, she felt a memory materialize in front of her. She could see the others looking a bit anxious as the setting became clear. They were sitting in Grimmauld Place, just as they had a few minutes before, while a toddler version of James and an even younger Hugo played on the ground with a few toys which Hermione assumed belonged to James. Scorpius was currently being cradled by the memory version of her while the memory Draco had his arm around her back as she leaned into him.

_'Did you see the front page?' Harry asked them while Ginny toiled around at the stove. Ron was leaning back in his seat, eating the food in front of him, but he shook his head._

_'What happened?' Hermione asked, with a worried look on her face._

_'Gringotts has been broken into…again,' Harry said grimly, 'And we all know how well that turned out the first time.'_

_'Do we know what's been taken?' Draco asked, sitting up straighter as he took the paper from Harry to study it._

_'No,' Harry said with a shake of his head, 'They were trying to ensure that it didn't leak to the public, but someone overheard two of the Goblins talking and reported it. Since they haven't formally filed a report, we can't do anything about it. They want to handle it internally.'_

Hermione took a look at the front page to get an indication of when in time they were. _June 30, 2004._

She made a mental note of the date for later. While she doubted things were going to follow the old timeline anymore, it never hurt to be too prepared.

Hermione noted as Draco watched his counterpart holding her closely. She tried not to think about it, seeing as they would be witnessing years of their marriage, and the last thing she needed was to attempt to processes the implications.

_'We have to do something about it!' Draco said, frustrated. 'They might think they have a handle on this sort of thing, but what if it's not just some random stolen artifact. People don't break into Gringotts lightly.'_

_Hermione blushed slightly at that, and Draco stroked her cheek, 'Of course when your wife and her friends do it, it tends to be a different story.'_

_Harry laughed, 'Well it wasn't exactly easy, and the three of us weren't all that subtle in our escape. Every time I go there now, they always give me a judging look. I don't think they'll ever forgive us for it.'_

_Ron nodded at that, 'I know what you mean. I make an effort to send Luna whenever I can so I can avoid it.'_

The memory started to fade as James left the room. After the war, the security at Gringotts had tightened even more at the elusive bank. While it had been near impossible when they had done it, she imagined it would be far harder now.

If she had marked this memory, it meant that the break in wasn't a mere coincidence, and that whatever was taken somehow related to all of this. It wasn't as if they could just go to the bank and ask for a list of whatever they held, especially without any grounds to do so.

As the next memory began to materialize she saw that they were in the burrow. There was a huge banner wishing Hugo a happy second birthday. While the Burrow had always been chaotic whenever there was a party, somehow having all the children there, including the rest of the Weasley clan's kids, made it all the more busier.

_There were kids running everywhere, as Molly made her way through the crowd to place an impressive looking cake in front of the birthday boy._

_Draco was holding Scorpius who looked to be approaching a year old now. The young blonde was babbling happy as Angelina was enjoying playing a game of peek-a-boo with the child. Hermione was standing close by as one of her arms were wrapped around her husband's waist._

_Harry was a few metres away as he was chatting to Luna. _

Hermione noted Harry's eyes soften at the sight. While she knew that he considered the Weasley family his own, there still had been times in the past where she knew that he felt out of place; mainly because she had felt it too. But seeing them there, with three generations of family members was a heartwarming sight.

_Molly used her wand to light the candles, as Ron explained to his son that he would need to make a wish and blow out the candles. While the young boy seemed amazed at the sight of the cake, he nodded in agreement to whatever his father was telling him._

_The room burst into song, and when they had finished, Luna helped Hugo blow out the candles. When they were safely removed, Molly reached across the table to grab the knife from Arthur._

_Unfortunately for her, Hugo seemed to be a little too eager for his cake. _

Hermione stifled a laugh as she watched Hugo use his hands to scoop up a gigantic piece of the cake and stuff it into his mouth. The young child was truly his father's son.

_The room burst into laughter as Hugo giggled when Molly gave him a teasing stern look._

_George had been about to say something when the ground began to shake heavily. Thankfully, they were all outside, so they didn't need to worry about the building collapsing on them. Draco pulled Hermione in tightly as the two of them bent down to the ground to huddle over their son. _

_The quake didn't last long, and had passed nearly as quickly as it had appeared._

_'That's the third time this month,' Hermione said, sounding upset. 'We can't write this off as a coincidence anymore.'_

_'No, we can't,' Harry said with a shake of his head. 'I'm really sorry that I have to leave so suddenly, but I need to go in to the office and see if we can find the cause of the earthquake. At the very least we're going to need to see what the damage is.'_

_Draco nodded as he leaned in and placed a tender kiss on Hermione's lips, 'I'll see you in a few hours,' he promised her as he handed her their son._

_'Be careful,' she murmured against his lips._

_'Always,' he said softly, before pulling away from her. _

Hermione did her best to avoid making eye contact with Harry, who currently had a very amused look on his face. Ron's face with unreadable, but to be honest, Hermione didn't think that had anything to do with her, but rather a reaction to himself with Luna and Hugo. She also did her best not to look at Draco.

As the new memory presented itself, Hermione braced herself.

_Ron was sitting at the table, as he delicately cut food on a plate meant for a child. 'Hugo, I expect you to finish all of this. Even the vegetables.'_

_Hugo made a disgusted looking face, 'No!'_

_'If you eat your vegetables, then I promise you that you can have some of the dessert that Mommy made for you,' Ron tried to convince the stubborn child. 'It has lots of chocolate in it.'_

_Hugo looked thoughtful at that as he contemplated both options. In the end he decided on shaking his head, 'No!'_

_'But chocolate!' Ron said, as he threw up his arms in frustration, 'You love chocolate.'_

_'You're doing it wrong,' a light voice called out from behind him. 'Hugo, if you don't eat your vegetables, then not only will you not get dessert, but when we go over to Aunt Mione and Uncle Draco's house, you won't get to play with the training Quidditch broom we got you. Nor will you get to play with James.'_

_Hugo looked upset at the idea of missing out on so much more._

_'I don't know how you do that,' Ron said with a smile. 'Maybe you should be the one running for Minister, instead of that wanker, Zacharias Smith. How he ever got anyone's vote is beyond me.'_

_'You just need the right tactics to convince him. Your son is stubborn after all,' Luna teased as she wrapped her arms around his neck._

_'Oh so now he's my son, is he?' Ron asked in amusement._

_Luna was about to reply when the floo sounded, as a fire call came through, 'Ron, they found a dead body; we need you to come in.'_

_Ron sighed, 'I'll try to make it back soon,' he said, as he kissed Luna soundly._

_She smiled as she handed him his coat, 'I'll see you then.'_

_Ron left the room, but not before wishing his son a farewell as well._

The memory came to a close once more, and Hermione felt herself slightly anxious as to what was to come next. Harry wrapped his arm around her comfortingly and she gave him a grateful smile.

Ron looked a little sheepish at the sight, and she didn't quite blame him. But she could see a part of him grin at the sight of his domestic life.

The next memory didn't materialize right away, and Hermione was caught off guard as she heard words without a visual swirl around her. She listened, as it was the same phrase repeated over and over.

_'Sacred twenty-eight. They want the council to rule.'_

And as quick as the words had appeared, they were gone once more. The group gave each other curious glances, but none of them said a word as the next memory came into focus.

_Hermione was cuddled into Draco's chest, as Scorpius, who now looked to be about seven months old crawled on the ground in front of them. She had a smile on her face as Draco twirled a strand of her hair absently, while the both of them watched their son happily making his way around._

_'He's growing up so fast,' Hermione said in wonder as Scorpius picked up a stuffed snitch toy and began to babble in excitement at the toy. _

_'I know,' Draco said with a gentle smile. 'My mother used to say that one moment I was just like this, crawling around and sucking on everything, and the next I was off to Hogwarts. I always used to roll my eyes at her when she did, but being a father, I see it now. I swear we just found out we were expecting yesterday.'_

_'Speak for yourself,' Hermione said as she swatted him lightly. 'I remember every moment of being pregnant with him.'_

_'I think you secretly enjoyed it; getting to boss me around even more and demanding the strangest of things,' he teased her lightly._

_She laughed, 'I wish I could say you were exaggerating, but I know you're right.'_

_He was silent for a few moments, and Hermione used a hand to cup his face so she could meet his eyes, 'Is everything alright?' she asked him, slightly worried._

_'I was just thinking about everything. Whatever is happening out there, is getting a whole lot worse. It's not just Britain anymore with the obscure random weather and natural disasters. It's spreading across Europe. France has reported several cyclones, Italy and Ireland have both had tsunamis, and Greece had a volcanic explosion. It's getting worse out there, and whatever this is, it's all connected. And I just wish that we had some sort of idea as to what's causing it.'_

_'You'll figure it out,' she assured him as she pressed a kiss to his jaw bone. 'Between you and Harry, you're quite a team.'_

_Draco pulled her in closer and Hermione's head lay against his chest. The two of them sat there in amicable silence as they watched their child continue to crawl around the room with happy coos._

The memory faded out as the scene in front of them changed once more.

_The three boys were playing on the ground of the tea room at Malfoy Manor, as Scorpius started walking around the room. _

He was slightly shaky, Hermione noted, meaning he probably had just began to walk. He looked to be around sixteen months, judging from his size, and she used that as a marker to indicate when they were in the memories.

_Hugo and James were both playing with a few toys, while the adults watched from chairs a few metres back from where the children were._

_'I love watching them like this,' Ginny said wistfully, 'I hope they all grow up to be close friends.'_

_'They will be,' Ron said in a sure sounding voice, 'I mean look how close we are; even with ferret boy.'_

_Draco laughed at that, 'I feel as if I should be offended by that, but after this long, it doesn't quite have the same effect anymore.'_

_Ron smirked at him, 'Shame.'_

_Hermione shook her head in amusement, 'Sometimes I wonder if the two of you becoming friends is one of the worst things that could have possibly happened.'_

_Draco leaned in and kissed her tenderly on the mouth, 'No you don't. You love that I'm friends with your friends.'_

_Hermione deepened the kiss as she heard Ron grumble from behind them, 'Little eyes in the room! They don't need to know how Scorpius was conceived!'_

_'Ronald!' Ginny said appalled. 'Honestly, Luna, I don't know _how_ you put up with him.'_

_'It comes with practice,' she said in a dreamy voice, causing Ron to sit up straighter._

_'Hey! Why is everyone against me now?' Ron grumbled as he crossed his arms in protest, causing the room to burst into laughter. _

_There was a moment of silence following it, before it was swiftly broken once more._

_'How is the investigation going?' Hermione asked after a few moments._

_Harry shook his head, 'Not very well. We hear all these whispers of some sort of secret group, but no one seems to know anything about it.'_

_'At least with the Death Eaters and Voldemort, we knew what their agenda was,' Ron said with a sigh. 'But we don't even know what these guys seem to want.'_

_'Have you talked to any of the members?' Ginny asked as she took a sip of her tea._

_'We've questioned a few of them,' Harry said. 'We found a few bragging about their new secret society after getting to inebriated at the Leaky, and we brought them in to ask about all of it. But either they're too far down to know of any real details, or they really are that clueless as to what they're a part of. But it wasn't just that once; we talked to several members on different occasions. They don't even know who their leader is. Just that they were promised that England will soon resort to its old ways.'_

_'What does that even mean?' Hermione whispered. _

_'It could be nearly anything,' Draco said as he held his wife. 'The old ways doesn't just mean in terms of blood purity. It could be referring to an older type of society we once had, rules we once used, or even just that we get to prance around the muggle world in robes.'_

_Luna sighed, 'It seems as though this is going to be quite a challenge.'_

_'I'll do some research into old customs,' Hermione promised the group softly. 'Maybe I'll be able to find something else about it.'_

_The group murmured in agreement._ The memory started to fade as the adults got distracted by their children who were starting to complain about being hungry.

As the new memory arrived, Hermione felt herself grow accustomed to the domestic life she and her friends had apparently settled into. She hadn't spoken to any of her friends since they entered the pensieve, nor had they to her, as they did not want to miss any details.

_'Another one?' Hermione asked in shock as Draco loosened his tie and sat at the table. _Hermione noted that her future-self looked worn out, much as she tended to look during times of immense stress and pressure. Future-Draco had a similar look on his face, as sighed.

_'Unfortunately,' he said with a grim tone. 'This one was found on the street. I'll spare you the details; I don't even want to relive just how badly his body was broken up and mutilated.'_

_Hermione shuddered slightly, 'Who was it this time?' she asked, voice sounding broken._

_'Hermione,' Draco said softly as he walked closer to her._

_'Who was it?' she repeated, as she sounded worried at the prospect._

_'I'm so sorry,' he said softly. 'It was Neville.'_

_Hermione didn't say anything, as Draco's arms enveloped around her. She buried her head into him as she sobbed softly._

_'I don't understand how they got him,' she cried. 'Oh poor Hannah! And Frank! He can't be gone.'_

_Draco rubbed her back softly in circles to soothe her, allowing her to release her pain._

_'Pansy Parkinson, Ernie, Daphne, Theo, Andromeda, Marcus Flint, Bill, and now Neville?' she asked softly. 'And those are just the people we know! Draco, I can't do this anymore. I can't lose any more people in this war.'_

_Draco nodded, 'I know, Hermione,' he said in a sad voice. 'It's getting harder with each death to stop it. We're so outnumbered by an army, and we don't even know anything about them.'_

_'I wish there was something I could do,' she said softly._

_'There's one thing,' He said softly._

_'What?' she asked._

_'We've been talking about an infiltration mission,' Draco said. 'Chances are that they're going to try to come after Ron, Harry, or I eventually, so if we allow them to recruit us, we could bring them down from the inside.'_

_'No!' she said firmly. 'I won't lose you too. How will Scorpius and I cope without you? I refuse to let you put yourself in harm's way.'_

_'It might be the only way we can put an end to all of this,' Draco said, using his hand to cup her face and bring it up so they locked eyes. 'If it were you in my position, you would do the same thing.'_

_'Then why can't it be me?' she cried out softly._

_'I know you went against Voldemort, but as much classroom training and things you had learned on your own, you don't have the training I do. And I can't let you put yourself at risk like that,' he said tenderly._

_She was silent for a few moments, 'Okay. But promise me you'll be careful?'_

_'I promise that I will do my best to make it home to you,' Draco said._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Part one of the memories! I know you guys are still going to have a lot of questions, and I promise I'll reveal a little more information in the next chapter.


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